To achieve success in today’s world of competition, one needs to start making efforts from a young age. Olympiads are a great way to improve skills and efficiency at the school level. To improve these skills students must regularly take part in both national and international level olympiads.
These prestigious exams are conducted for the students of classes 1-12. Cracking these exams could be a big achievement for a student’s career. These exams are mostly conducted for subjects like English, Mathematics, and Science and are based on the syllabus which is taught in the school.
In India, olympiad exams are conducted every year by various foundations such as SFO, Crest Olympiad, Silver Zone Foundation, etc. to bring out the talent of genius students who in turn become an inspiration for others.
These are mostly conducted through schools and participants who score well in these exams get medals and scholarships from the foundation conducting them.
Olympiad exams are considered a burden to students by many parents. Some parents are of the thought that appearing for these exams can hamper their child’s academic studies. But if looked at it the other way round, it complements school studies.
Considering how useful taking these exams could be for a student, it becomes important to understand how to prepare for the olympiads. An effective strategy to crack an exam could prove to be quite useful for someone appearing for these exams.
This article mainly deals with preparation tips for the class 6 maths olympiad but most of these are general tips that could be useful for students of other classes and subjects as well.
Understand the pattern of the Olympiads
To excel at an exam, it is very important to first understand the pattern. This includes the type of questions, marking scheme, and the time provided to complete the exam.
This essentially means having a fair idea as to what are the types of questions that are usually asked in the exam, the distribution of marks among different sets of questions, and the time given to students in which they have to complete all the questions.
All of this can be found out by looking at previous year exams that are easily available in preparation books and websites of the foundations conducting the olympiad. For instance, the SFO website has more than 15 PDFs of the previous year’s olympiad exams.
After looking at the pattern, the student gets a clear idea about what topics to focus on more as compared to the others and also how to manage time while answering the questions.One can refer to the IMO Maths Olympiad Class 6 Question Papers.
Focus on conceptual learning
Although it is not possible, at some point we all wish that success was possible through shortcuts. Unfortunately, it is only possible by thorough study. To achieve good results in an olympiad, just like any other competitive exam, it is important to have a good understanding of the concepts.
This could be made possible by trying to understand the concepts with the help of examples and by thinking out of the box. Since the questions could be asked in any form, it might be of great help to solve as many practice questions as possible.
This will help to widen the student’s knowledge about a particular concept and will also help in solving a variety of questions.
Make notes
While studying for an olympiad exam, making notes is a very important preparation tip. Students can use charts and abbreviations to make it easier while revising the syllabus.
Writing key formulas on flashcards is also useful while preparing for the exam. Going through notes while revising helps to remember the syllabus and also helps in the last-minute preparation of the entire syllabus.
Practice
Practice does make a man perfect! Once the concepts are clear, it is very important to apply the knowledge for solving the practise questions to test one/s understanding of the subject. It helps you know where you stand in your preparation and also helps to gain confidence by solving the problems.
It could be done by understanding the whole chapter and then solving the topic-wise problems of the chapter. At this point, students must solve mock tests and worksheets that are available in the material they are using for preparing for the exam.
These mock tests could also be found on the website of the foundation conducting the olympiad. This will help the students develop logical reasoning that is very crucial for solving a competitive exam like an olympiad.
Time Management
Since very limited time is available to attempt all the questions, students should start the preparation early because last-minute preparation often causes a lot of stress and panic.
This does not mean that one has to keep studying for long hours without taking any breaks. Taking short and scheduled breaks while studying helps to improve concentration and manage stress levels.
Revision
Now that you have covered the entire syllabus the only thing left is to revise whatever you have studied. This includes reviewing notes and practicing on OMR sheets so that there is no problem in attempting questions on the day of the exam.
Conclusion
Preparing for the math olympiad might seem quite tricky at first, but applying the right strategy helps to ease off the burden and makes the studying process easier. By following the above points, students can gather the confidence they need for attempting the exam.
But if followed correctly, this preparation strategy can prove to be very effective and can guarantee success. Other small things like sleeping properly the night before the exam and going to the center with a fresh mind are also useful.
Avoiding junk food and eating healthy during the preparation days helps in keeping a healthy mind that is very crucial in preparing for a math olympiad. Lastly, students should spend a few minutes having a glance at the question paper. Not spending too much time on a single question helps to save time during the exam.
Keeping them interested is half the battle — creative ideas for making maths fun helps.
