Notice:
This page is outdated and contains information from the Spring 2021 iteration of NamComp. This page will be updated at the beginning of the Fall 2021 term.
Final Exam
At 09:00 CAT on Saturday, April 3, the above heading will contain a link to the final competition exam for this iteration of the NamComp program. All students who passed the placement exam are eligible to compete on this exam. Students will click to view the exam, write their solutions, and send a scan of their work to judeflynn@ufl.edu for grading by 21:00 on Sunday, April 4. Thoroughly review the exam instructions below; failure to follow these instructions may result in disqualification.
Instructions: Credit will be awarded based on correct working and answer. An answer with no working shown will receive little or no credit. If correct working is present with an incorrect answer, some partial credit may be awarded, so you are advised to show all of your work when attempting each problem. You may answer the problems in any order you like, but you must number each problem if you choose to work out of order. No credit will be awarded for working or answers that are not clearly labeled with a problem number; if it is unclear on which problem you are working, it is impossible to award credit. There is no penalty for an unanswered question or incorrect answer; you are strongly encouraged but not required to attempt all problems.
Students must include their name, grade level, and ID (as given in the placement test results) at the beginning of their submission document. The file name of your submission should be your first and last name, e.g. Pafnuty Chebyshev should submit PafnutyChebyshev.pdf. A single PDF is preferred. If you are unable to submit one single file (PDF or otherwise) and instead submit multiple, you must number each of the files, e.g. PafnutyChebyshev1.jpg, PafnutyChebyshev2.jpg, etc. When submitting, please confirm that you have attached all files successfully and that the files are legible. As students will have 36 hours to complete and submit this exam, late submissions will not be accepted.
Scores from this exam will be used to establish a ranking of participants. The exam is designed so that all participating students, regardless of grade level, can find success if they study our materials well. Thus, you should try your hardest on this exam, and refrain from collaborating. You are not permitted to use any outside sources in solving these problems, including but not limited to peers, instructors, and the Internet. If it becomes evident that a student has used such sources, he or she will receive a score of zero for the exam. All problems can and must be solved without the use of a calculator, and apparent calculator use will result in a loss of credit.
If you have any administrative questions about this exam, please contact me at judeflynn@ufl.edu or contact an adviser. We wish you good luck and happy solving!
Notice:
Due to U.S. Daylight Savings Time, office hours will be held one hour earlier beginning Sunday, March 14. These changes are reflected on the website and calendar. Additionally, office hours for March 16 have been cancelled.
NamComp Calendar Spring 2021
Students, this calendar should serve as a guide when you are working through the materials. You may work at your own pace, and our advisers will do their best to offer assistance with the material should you need it.
Materials
Instructional Materials
Corrections: Answer to Example 3.5 should read 191, not 192.
Exercises
The above links contain the materials for this iteration of NamComp. Students should study the concepts and examples present in the instructional materials, and attempt the exercises. These topics will comprise the content of the final competition exam.
Links to Zoom Office Hours
Office hours will begin Sunday, February 21 and end Friday, April 2. Times are listed on the project calendar.
| Day | Time | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 16:30-17:30 | click here for link |
| Tuesday | 16:30-17:30 | click here for link |
| Wednesday | 17:00-18:00 | click here for link |
| Thursday | 17:00-18:00 | click here for link |
| Friday | 17:00-18:00 | click here for link |
| Saturday | 18:00-19:00 | click here for link |
| Sunday | 18:30-19:30 | click here for link |
Placement Exam Results
ID: Your ID is given, based on the email from which you submitted your solutions, in the form AB.CD, where A, B, C, D are the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th alphanumeric characters in your email. For example, chebyshev@ufl.edu would be assigned CH.SH, gauss@ufl.edu would be assigned GA.UF, and a_markov@ufl.edu would be assigned AM.OV. If you have questions regarding your ID, contact judeflynn@ufl.edu with your full name. If you wish to change your ID, you are free to email me at any time (please don’t make them long).
Score: Number correct out of 34 (Question 3 tossed for lack of clarity). Includes partial credit. Score of N/A indicates an incomplete or corrupt file with no correct answers present.
Pass: P indicates that a student has passed, NP indicates that a student has not passed. Passing students are eligible to continue the program and compete on the end-of-period exam.
Students are welcome to ask questions about the content of the placement exam during office hours. Questions regarding grading should be directed to judeflynn@ufl.edu.
| ID | Score | Pass |
|---|---|---|
| LO.ON | 27 | P |
| JU.HE | 26 | P |
| ED.AY | 23.5 | P |
| JA.DU | 23.5 | P |
| BR.AN | 21.5 | P |
| VI.NS | 20.5 | P |
| AD.AH | 19.5 | P |
| CH.ES | 19 | P |
| HS.AN | 19 | P |
| RO.NG | 19 | P |
| FE.EI | 18.5 | P |
| AG.AU | 18 | P |
| AD.PR | 17.5 | P |
| TE.SI | 17.5 | P |
| JH.AY | 17 | P |
| ME.IE | 17 | P |
| JA.6D | 16.5 | P |
| TW.FA | 16.5 | P |
| KU.LA | 16 | P |
| TB.DE | 16 | P |
| JA.EC | 14.5 | NP |
| GR.KA | 13.5 | NP |
| HA.IE | 13.5 | NP |
| AN.BR | 13 | NP |
| TW.WA | 13 | NP |
| ZA.OV | 13 | NP |
| MA.EE | 12.5 | NP |
| OL.RL | 12.5 | NP |
| ND.I2 | 12 | NP |
| SC.OU | 11 | NP |
| TA.IQ | 11 | NP |
| ST.NP | 11 | NP |
| AS.MU | 10 | NP |
| FS.DH | 10 | NP |
| VA.AT | 10 | NP |
| DA.SO | 9 | NP |
| EM.VA | 9 | NP |
| HE.LD | 9 | NP |
| SI.RJ | 9 | NP |
| DA.LC | 8.5 | NP |
| AD.GR | 8 | NP |
| IZ.RE | 8 | NP |
| LA.KA | 8 | NP |
| RO.BR | 8 | NP |
| GL.1B | 6.5 | NP |
| CA.42 | 6 | NP |
| CG.NE | 4 | NP |
| BA.TA | 3.5 | NP |
| BE.VO | 3.5 | NP |
| AB.AP | 2 | NP |
| KA.KE | N/A | NP |
Placement Exam
At 09:00 CAT on Saturday, February 13, the above heading will contain a link to the placement exam for this iteration of the NamComp program. Interested students will click to view the exam, write their solutions, and send a scan of their work to judeflynn@ufl.edu for grading by 21:00. No late submissions will be accepted. Additional exam instructions are contained within the exam document.
Project Overview
The purpose of this project is to offer basic training to high school learners in solving non-standard mathematics problems that go beyond a regular high school mathematics curriculum so that they can better perform in mathematics competitions. This is not a supplement to the standard high school mathematics program nor is it a tutoring program; it might not be suitable for every high-performing high school learner. This project is meant for learners gifted in mathematics willing to improve their skills by solving challenging mathematics problems that are offered at national and international mathematics competitions.
The project is being carried out by student volunteers from the University Mathematics Society (UMS) of the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida, USA) under supervision by Professor Sergei Shabanov (who is also a faculty adviser to the society) and by Dr. Valey Kamalov (Google). UMS has been organizing national mathematics competitions for high schools for many years in cooperation with other major universities in the US.
The pilot iteration of the project began at the end of September 2020. For this pilot stage, we had 27 learners selected by mathematics teachers from Windhoek High Schools (Windhoek, Namibia). With each iteration of the program, we may select additional learners. Winners of regional and national mathematics competitions are especially welcome.
UMS has prepared some written and video materials devoted to a particular type of non-standard problems that are often offered in math competitions. The current topic is Number Theory, Logic, and Combinatorics. It is suitable for learners who know basic algebra with variables, the concept of a root of an equation, and how to solve basic algebraic equations. The instructional material contains a brief explanation of various non-standard tricks and methods illustrated by examples and a set of exercise problems (with answers). This is not a textbook meant for the average well-performing learner but rather for learners who have mathematical talents. Participants should be able to recognize general patterns after studying examples and effectively notice these patterns when solving new problems. All material will be available online through this UMS webpage.
Notes on the Format of the Project
(i) The participants have to study the materials, go through examples, and solve exercise problems during a period of 4-6 weeks. Each participant will have access to advising by UMS members to resolve any questions while studying the instructional material and exercise problems. We plan to use Zoom video conferences for this purpose. Conference sessions will be arranged by the advisers. A convenient time will be set via a mutual agreement between participants and their advisers.
(ii) At the end of the learning process, the participants will be given a set of problems without answers. They will be expected to submit solutions to their advisers within a specified period of time (e.g. a week). The participants are expected to comply with an academic honesty pledge, to not discuss these problems with any person, and to submit their own work. Solutions are free-response and participants are expected to include all logical and technical steps to get full credit.
(iii) After the assignment is graded by the advisers, solutions will be sent to the participants who may discuss their work with advisers via a Zoom conference to clarify any logical shortcomings and explain mistakes, if any.
(iv) Ideally, at the very end of each topic, an in-class competition for participants will be organized to see if the participants can show their learned skills in a realistic and time-sensitive mathematics competition. The UMS will provide problems on the topic studied and a local teacher will proctor the final competition. It is desirable to arrange a Zoom video connection to the classroom so that the advisers can be additional online (remote) proctors. The result of the competition will also establish a ranking of the participants within each grade level. However, given uncertainties due to COVID-19, an online version of the final competition is being considered.
(v) In the above pilot project, the level of most assignment and final competition problems will be similar to that of regional mathematics competitions. The purpose is to gauge the level of participants and their skills. Given continued success of the project, UMS plans to create instructional materials for several additional topics (with 4-5 topics per year, about 2 months to complete each topic in the same way as described above). This may culminate in a competition to determine absolute winners of the program. Since the number of volunteers is limited, expansion of the program will be done on a merit basis determined by a placement test taken by prospective participants. Since the program is online, it is always desirable to attract prospective participants from other regions of Namibia.
Should you have any questions about the project or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact Professor S. Shabanov and Dr. V. Kamalov.
Our Student Team
Jude Flynn, Deputy Director
Eva Bayer, Author/Adviser
John Dixon, Author/Adviser
Maddie Hastie, Author/Adviser
Arnav Pangasa, Author/Adviser
Igor Sokolov, Author/Adviser
Noam Amozeg, Author/Adviser
Nicholas Kapsos, Author/Adviser
Emily Namm, Author
Julia Franck, Graphic Design