EGMO: Day One!!
DAY ONE.
There's a nervous sort of energy when you're eating breakfast in the hall with all the students before the competition starts. Some students are extra chatty. Some students are extra quiet. Some students drown out the world under a pair of big headphones.
Canada goes looking for snacks. ;)
Seriously though, given that this is our first time at EGMO, and it's the first Olympiad for each of the girls on the team, there's a specific type of fear that is driven simply from the unknown. Before sending them off, I re-iterated once again that the most important thing was to breathe and enjoy the problems.
Eventually, snacks found, favorite writing supplies in hand, I saw off the students to their respective rooms. After the first hour of the competition, the exam is then available for Deputy Leaders to get their hands on. In parallel, the entire morning, Team Leaders are separated, debating the marking scheme in a rush to finalize them for the afternoon. (bonus photo from the Jury, courtesy of Dorette!)
Day One problems were fun! Very approachable and enjoyable to contemplate. The girls echo'ed my sentiments as they filed out of the exam rooms in the afternoon. It's pretty interesting gauging their different reactions after the exam - some don't like to talk about it, some are very talkative, some ask you immediately for answers, and some you can still see the gears turning as they are caught in the thrall of an unsolved problem. The thing that made me happiest was seeing the fear of the unknown disappear in the girls. It'll resurface again in Day Two, but for now, we're halfway done :)
In the afternoon, we went back to the streets of Florence for some souvenir shopping. Our goal was to keep the girls from thinking about the competition, and give them a chance to relax. Florence has a history that is rich in leather, paper, and artisanal crafts, and we hopped from store to store taking in all the goods that the city had to offer. Also, of course, we had to stop for gelato. I could really get used to this.
In the late afternoon, Dorette and I started on the marking.
By the end of the evening, we will have agreed on tentative points for each contestant for each problem. These scores will be defended with the Jury on Friday. In order to make the best use of that time, we really need to make sure we know our solutions inside out, and we know where all the partial points are that we can find in the solutions.
I'm thrilled to say that I was extremely pleased with how our girls did on Day One. Their solutions are a genuine pleasure to read - the quality of the solution writing is absolutely stellar! By the time we're through everything, it's late evening, and we're off to bed to start the whole process again the next day!
Sarah
There's a nervous sort of energy when you're eating breakfast in the hall with all the students before the competition starts. Some students are extra chatty. Some students are extra quiet. Some students drown out the world under a pair of big headphones.
Canada goes looking for snacks. ;)
Seriously though, given that this is our first time at EGMO, and it's the first Olympiad for each of the girls on the team, there's a specific type of fear that is driven simply from the unknown. Before sending them off, I re-iterated once again that the most important thing was to breathe and enjoy the problems.
Eventually, snacks found, favorite writing supplies in hand, I saw off the students to their respective rooms. After the first hour of the competition, the exam is then available for Deputy Leaders to get their hands on. In parallel, the entire morning, Team Leaders are separated, debating the marking scheme in a rush to finalize them for the afternoon. (bonus photo from the Jury, courtesy of Dorette!)
Day One problems were fun! Very approachable and enjoyable to contemplate. The girls echo'ed my sentiments as they filed out of the exam rooms in the afternoon. It's pretty interesting gauging their different reactions after the exam - some don't like to talk about it, some are very talkative, some ask you immediately for answers, and some you can still see the gears turning as they are caught in the thrall of an unsolved problem. The thing that made me happiest was seeing the fear of the unknown disappear in the girls. It'll resurface again in Day Two, but for now, we're halfway done :)
In the afternoon, we went back to the streets of Florence for some souvenir shopping. Our goal was to keep the girls from thinking about the competition, and give them a chance to relax. Florence has a history that is rich in leather, paper, and artisanal crafts, and we hopped from store to store taking in all the goods that the city had to offer. Also, of course, we had to stop for gelato. I could really get used to this.
In the late afternoon, Dorette and I started on the marking.
By the end of the evening, we will have agreed on tentative points for each contestant for each problem. These scores will be defended with the Jury on Friday. In order to make the best use of that time, we really need to make sure we know our solutions inside out, and we know where all the partial points are that we can find in the solutions.
I'm thrilled to say that I was extremely pleased with how our girls did on Day One. Their solutions are a genuine pleasure to read - the quality of the solution writing is absolutely stellar! By the time we're through everything, it's late evening, and we're off to bed to start the whole process again the next day!
Sarah
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