Surviving math January 29, 2006
One word could only describe our week last week–hectic. My son was a participant in the Math Teachers Association of the Philippines (MTAP) challenge, a yearly math contest pitting elementary and high school students of all grade and year levels from different schools. It was a sort of elimination round at the division level, whoever tops the test will participate in the regional competition.
Thursday’s test was also only the first part of the competition; contestants have to come back for another round. I don’t know if all of the contestants will be joining the second round or only those who are in the top 5, 3, or 2.
Some 20 private and public schools in Lapu-Lapu City participated in the math contest, held on Thursday last week. Schools had to send in three participants from each grade or year. The higher scores of the two from each team will be added together and this will represent the team’s score.
My son and the two others in his team only knew three days before the contest that they would be joining the challenge. Their teacher took this long to tell them. The result: they were only able to review for a total of six hours. They were not exempted from class for the reviews; on the other hand, the teacher held the review after class hours–from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday or three days before the actual contest. My son’s team, fortunately, still placed third. I don’t know though if they would still be participating in the second round of the contest.
My son said Czar, one of the three students in the team, had cried on last day of the review, saying he does not know the answer to the questions in the teacher’s questionnaire. I was told by his aunt that he also cried during the MTAP opening activities, held an hour before the examination. I really felt sorry for him.
