Singapore High School Math Exams Stumps Internet - Photo Goes Viral - Answer Revealed

Math problems, exams in Singapore high school students stumps internet and became viral online. April 13, 2015. “P5″ logic question is actually a Math Olympiad question for Sec 3 and 4 students.

– A math problem that first appeared in a test for Singapore's elite high school students has baffled Internet users around the world after it went viral, prompting a rush of attempts to solve it.

The question, involving a girl asking two boys to guess her birthday after giving them scant clues, first appeared in an April 8 test organized by the Singapore and Asian School Math Olympiads (SOSMA).

It was meant for 15- and 16-year-old elite secondary school students, but swiftly went global after a local television news presenter posted it on his Facebook page Saturday, April 11.

Executive Director of SASMO Henry Ong sent in a clarification to Mothership.sg. This is his letter in full:



“To whom it may concern, We would appreciate if you could post this reply to clarify the “supposedly P5 viral question” that appeared on your website.

We think it is important to clarify so that Singapore parents will not worry unnecessarily. The supposedly P5 question that went viral on the Internet on Apr 12, 2015 is actually a question from the Sec 3 and from the Sec 4 SASMO (Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad) contests held on Apr 8, 2015 (see photo below).

Being Q24 out of 25 questions, this is a difficult question meant to sift out the better students. SASMO contests target the top 40% of the student population and the standards of most questions are just high enough to stretch the students.

Questions that test on logical reasoning are common questions in Math Olympiads. This year, about 28 000 students from Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and UK took part in the contests.

We are pleased that this question has generated so much interest and ‘solutions’ on the Internet. For more information, please visit http://sasmo.sg or http://mathsolympiads.org.

Here is the solution