Competitions

I have been in quite a bit of competitions. In fact, I suppose they got me into Hwa Chong, what with the SMOPS, IMSO, ICAS...there seem to be competitions for everything and anything. Personally, I have participated in competitions about Mathematics, Science, Scrabble, Chess, and more. However, I had gained a great insight about these competitions after a spelling bee. As I was leaving the venue, I had commented to the teacher that I seemed to be better at competitions than at actual academic studies. She replied that sometimes, it is the people who take part in lots of competitions who are more successful in life than the people who perform well in tests. This has given me food for thought, which I still ponder about.

One way people who take part in competitions may become more successful in life is that they can meet many new friends, often with similar interests. Your interests are bound to be similar, after all, the both of you are in the same competition. Also, if you team up with a friend to participate in a competition, you can strengthen your relationship by working together towards a common goal. Therefore, going to competitions can help you forge new friendships, or strengthen current ones.

Competitions also give you a sort of recognition. If you have a good track record in competitions, you are more likely to get into a school, or a job, than a student who has really good academic results but does not participate in any competitions, partly due to the relatively new DSA system allowing students to have confirmation of a place in a school. You can learn new things in competitions too.

Furthermore, you can develop your interests. If you, for instance, like computer programming, and participate in programming competitions, you may be recognised by companies and possibly hired in the future, providing you with a job which involves something you like.

Now, you might want to know my current record of competitions. I have:
- 300/300 in the Basic HSC (chinese standard test) when I was P5
- Full sweep of High Distinctions in the ICAS (otherwise known as the NSW competition) last year
- An ICAS medal for science I think, forgot which year.
- 7th in Scrabble Challenge this year, with Keeve Quah from 1I1 (it was a 2-player team contest)
- Silver medal in IMSO (International Math and Science Olympiad)
- Team 4th and Individual 2nd in (look away) RI Science Odyssey
I can't remember any more.