This week, we met up with Lydia L. (’22), who has been studying at ISKL for the past six years!
Lydia L. recently earned 135 points on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) and scored the highest among all Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia Schools (IASAS) students!
Apart from being a Math champ, Lydia is also a traditional Chinese painter trained since she was seven years old! While some of her artwork has been gifted to schools in Germany and China, others have been sold!
Just this week, she has generously bestowed an art piece she made in honor of the ISKL’s 55th Anniversary celebrations. The painting titled ‘Tao Li Man Tian Xia’ has been installed on the wall next to the school amphitheatre.
Lydia currently does not have a clear projection of her future career yet but is interested in a career related to Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)!
This is her story.
“This year is a special one for ISKL, it being the 55th anniversary, and I wanted to present my appreciation from my heart to the school, the teachers, and students. For me the best way to achieve this was by making a painting as a gift to all who have supported me and made this such a wonderful place to study and be part of. Through this painting, I send my best wishes and hopes that ISKL will perpetuate, progress, and prosper!
‘I had noticed that all the teachers and staff have been trying so hard to make our school a welcoming, safe, and joyful place for us – especially during the pandemic! The community has been incredibly cheerful and kind – and it is my honor to be part of it!
‘I named the art piece ‘Tao Li Man Tian Xia,’ as this translates to one of the most famous Chinese proverbs showing the utmost appreciation for educators and schools. The literal meaning of the title is, ‘Peaches and plums are booming all over the world,’ which means, “Elite and successful students from this school are all over the world.”
‘The painting is a freehand artwork drawn on rice paper using inks and brushes, which are elements of a traditional Chinese painting. While the pink color represents peaches and yellow portrays plums, the mountains at the back are the peaks of knowledge.
‘I was shocked when I found out about my score on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) – it was so unexpected! At the same time, I was thrilled with the results and that my efforts had paid off. In a way, this is my contribution to the ISKL community.
‘The AMC is a contest that is VERY different from math in school curriculums. It extends beyond things that are taught in schools and requires another way of solving math. For example, some probability and combination questions can be solved using recursive equations, and a question involving a bee flying around is a polar coordinate question with trigonometry identity.
‘My preparation took place over a lot of time, and I started preparing for this contest five months before the competition. I completed all the past papers for AMC 12 (for the past 20 years), which helped me get familiar with the question style and look for concepts that I might need to learn.
‘There are also some excellent resources online, and YouTube has some videos that explain all the questions, there are books for AMC (or any other competition) selling online, and my math teacher, Mr. Seth Tyler, has helped us students a lot!
Lydia’s tips on achieving a good score on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC)
- Do use the ‘Art of problem-solving’ website which has all the theorems that have appeared in AMC.
- If you have a math competition background, then one to three months of preparation is fine, but if you don’t, make sure to start preparing well ahead of time!
- Memorizing theorems are essential in this contest. The shoelace theorem, Angle bisector theorem, Stewart’s theorem, cyclic quadrilateral theorem are all fundamental if you want to attempt questions after number 15.
- Do work on some past papers! And time yourself.
- Remember, if you initially get an unsatisfactory score, it does not reflect on your math level as the AMC is a different type of mathematics – so don’t give up! Once you are familiar with the question style, you will see yourself doing great in the contest!
‘I will be graduating soon in 2022, so looking back, my best memory at ISKL has to be all the clubs that I have attended – particularly Robotics! I first joined the robotics club in 9th grade, and that has sparked my interest in STEM. I still remember at first how stunned I was by all the cool and fancy equipment in the Robotics room. We had the chance to build, design, and collaborate with others – it was such a meaningful experience for me!”
“All my teachers have inspired me to look at things from different perspectives.”
What does “Be All You Are mean” to you?
“’Be all you are, so you can be all you can be, be all you wish to be, and be all you will be. Be all you are so that it will lead you to the road of splendidness!”
