Publications
Partners
Misconceptions abound when it comes to mathematics, says a 16-year-old learner making waves in the subject.
There are many common ones, says Moied Baleg, like “you need to be intelligent to be good at maths” or “people are born with the ability to do maths and you can not improve this ability”.
Moied, a learner at The Settlers High School, would know as he’s just recently returned after competing in the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO) in Rwanda.
He was part of only six teens in the South African team and the only one from the northern suburbs of Cape Town.
A total of 31 countries participated in the event, sending their brightest mathletes to showcase their problem-solving skills. The South African team came in third after Morocco and Algeria.
“I was very excited and could hardly believe it, although quite nervous, because the competition is intense, and the chance of doing badly is high.”
Moied earned a bronze medal for his individual efforts. This was his first international competition.
Build-up
The competition involved hours of writing and thinking.
“The competition is written over two days, each day having a four hour 30 minute test. Each test contains three questions, presumably arranged in order of difficulty. The leader of the team and a coordinator from another country then mark your script and decide on a score for each question.”
Getting to the competition in Rwanda itself is a process.
“You start by registering to do the South African Mathematics Olympiad in the beginning of the year at your school,” he explains.
“The first round is usually in March, and everyone who gets 10/20 or higher can write the second round. The second round is more difficult, and only the top 100 juniors and top 100 seniors are selected to write the third round, usually on July. Around 30 juniors and 30 seniors are then chosen to take part in the December camp, usually at Stellenbosch University. Using this camp’s results, around 15 students are then selected to take part in a final selection camp in April the next year, from which the teams are chosen.”
In their free time, the South African team went to tourist attractions in Kigali and attended a basketball game.
“And we also played a lot of card and board games like Set, Pool with other teams”.
Moied is still uncertain about what he wants to do with his life in the future.
A computer scientist, actuary or even a maths professor are all professions he’s toying with.
In the meantime, Moied enjoys taking part in hobbies that don’t involve numbers, like chess, reading and playing football.
It’s been a relatively short time since that December in 2021 when he first realised he has a knack for the subject after being chosen to attend the national maths camp.
The world isn’t his oyster – it’s a shell in the perfectly mathematical Fibonacci sequence.
No matter what he does one day, it will all add up.
