Romanian Master of Mathematics

Newsletter Issue 2
By Rusu Rareș

Thursday - Day 2
Freshly awoken at 7 a.m., our students were starting to feel nervous, but in the same time excited. As the second day of the event began to embrace the cloudy day, the contestants were getting closer and closer to the reason they had come to RMM in the first place: their love for Maths. The air was filled with confidence and emotions while the participants enjoyed a quick breakfast: a croissant, a sandwich or a coffee from Starbucks. With their hearts beating faster, they tried to temper their emotions in the 30 minutes left till the “kick-off”, they took some photos with their friends or some selfies: something to remember when arriving home.
At 9 o’clock the time stands still. The guides, the journalists, the teachers: all of them are waiting. Not a single sound is bothering the tensed atmosphere, which is, in the end, disrupted by the ones who have already finished solving the tasks. Delighted that the contest had finally come to an end, we decided to ask them how their first part of the competition was and we gathered impressions. Our friends from Brazil surprised us, claiming that they were expecting much more difficult tasks.”But let’s be clear,” they said, “it was not that easy.” But we found out that that opinion was wide-spread: ”The subjects were easier than we expected. We are confident that we’ll have a pretty good score.” said the majority of the participants. But you don’t need scientific knowledge to be sure that intellectual effort is able to drain your energy. Therefore, tired and hungry after the competition , we decided to have fast lunch at the nearest restaurant. The tension was slowly decreasing and ice skating sounded like the best idea to forget about the stress we had all endured. In the same time, in our journey which had the purpose to find an open rink, we discovered that our contestants had never ice skated before. Of course, we adopted the role of teachers and our pupils learned quickly how to ice skate and overall, having fun. An angry snow fall and the darkness which was covering the horizon reminded us about the Moxa Complex, because our contestants needed some rest for the next day of the competition. We rushed to the subway and arrived at Moxa, fatigued but cheerful. See you tomorrow, dear contestants!

Newsletter 1
Sara Ioana Mihai, Matei Lascu, Dominic Stămătoiu , Rareş Rusu, Alexandru Pascu, Alexandru Buzescu, from 11H

The 21st day of February and the first day of the 11th edition of the "Romanian Master of Mathematics" contest began with Cătălin Gherghe's conference entitled "Problems with Codes and Codes with Problems."
The sunny and warm weather outside was in a perfect harmony with the enlightened minds that listened eagerly to Mr. Gherghe's lecture. He explained thoroughly in which way we can judge a Maths problem as being difficult but at the same time beautiful.
Starting up with several distorted tunes, he presented how much damage a single error can create into an algorithm, no matter if we are talking about Maths or coding, emphasizing the importance of redundant information that might be helpful in detecting the mistakes, similarly to the increasing of one's capacity to recognize the song as the distortion became milder.
All of these observations led, of course, to several mathematical equations that are able to translate these natural phenomena into signs and numbers. Without any doubt, our contestants understood them with ease and were delighted by the subject, as we noticed that they were discussing passionately about it afterwards.
We decided to join in the conversation and ask a few of them some questions. The first team we approached came all the way from Hungary, and were eager to say that the subject of the conference was very interesting, but also familiar to them, as it is part of their curriculum. The Hungarian contestant whom we interviewed, winner of a silver medal at the last year’s "Romanian Master of Mathematics" contest, pronounced himself prepared for tomorrow.
Excited and full of hope, Israel’s team is participating for the first time in this contest. But it is not their first time visiting our country, as they told us they carried home multiple prizes from the “International Mathematical Olympiad”, which has been held in Romania almost every year since its
first edition in 1959.
The Croatians didn’t want “to ginx themselves with any predictions”, even though they could pride themselves on taking home the bronze medal in a previous edition of the contest.
After speaking with the contestants who all seemed ready to start and win the contest, we came across one of the teachers and asked him some questions as well, and one of his answers captured our interest. We asked him how one can be a good Maths teacher. This was his reply: “A good Maths
teacher should be as passionate about Mathematics as about teaching in general. They are committed and dedicated individuals with excellent communication and organisational skills.” Not all students like Maths; in fact, many will find it positively boring. “The key to being a good Maths
teacher”, he told us, “is to find a way to make the subject interesting to even the most disinterested members of the class. The ideal Maths teacher is one with a charismatic personality whose enthusiasmfor the subject is nothing short of infectious: failing that, a good candidate for a Maths teaching position can breathe new life into the subject and assist those who struggle with Arithmetic to gain confidence in their skills.”
Our contestants further enjoyed a day full of fun, filled with activities organised by our guide colleagues, like escape rooms, walks through the city and so on, while waiting for the big opening of the contest which took place later in the afternoon.
We hope they all had a nice time for their first day here and are ready to come back tomorrow with fresh forces, just in time for the beginning of the competition.

1st day- Conference: Problems with Codes and Codes with Problems + Socializing and sport

NEWSLETTER ISSUE 4

THE TEAM


STUDENTS:

ANDREI GHEORGHE – 10 A
STEFAN PETRESCU – 10 A
GABRIEL SIVACHE – 10 A
ANDRA URZICA – 10 A
ELENA TOANCA – 9 A
IULIA OLTEANU – 9 A

Sunday, the 26th of February

Freshly awoken at 7:30, our delighted students were not at all ill-natured but, on the contrary, once again eager to venture into the unknown, this time happy as never before because the contest had finally come to an end. Bound to find out the results later on that day, they wanted to fill the nervousness gap by visiting some attractions or simply by going sightseeing around the centre of Bucharest.

After their breakfast at the canteen, we set with the French team for Herăstrău park, the boys claiming that nothing would boost their morale better than a casual relieving forenoon walk. Having been energized from the park’s sylvan atmosphere, our contestants felt like a good old coffee must come next on their wish list. Not a single word added, ideas started flooding our guides’ minds but in fact we knew the exact perfect place. Arriving at Ted’s Coffee Co. the students wasted no time and went for the “take away” option, as they perfectly knew, and so we, the guides, did, that time was not on our side. Being on their last day with free time in Bucharest, they all agreed that, having already seen all of the “top rated” sights during the previous days, they should take a look at the artistic part of our capital. Unfortunately, time was putting a lot of pressure on us so we just went around the National Art Museum not actually going in because lunch time was approaching pretty quickly. We rushed to the subway and arrived just in time for the shift, leaving the students in a sea of suspense. The time for our long awaited closing ceremony had finally come. Students and teachers together, everyone gathered in "Tudor Vianu" High school grand hall.

The nervousness and tension gradually dissipated and the atmosphere began to feel lighter as the happy winners went one by one to receive their medals. At last, all the hard work has been repaid. After all, everyone should feel rewarded, as experience and memories are prizes comparable in value with the shinier ones. On top of that, South Korea's team won an extra award as the team with the highest score, followed up by the United Kingdom and China.
Also, Romanian teams made their teachers and fellow schoolmates proud, scoring notable results, standing next to the big players of the international stage in mathematics.
The closing ceremony concluded with the dinner, best served besides old friends and new ones.

NEWSLETTER ISSUE 3

STUDENTS:
Vlad Diamandopol – 10 A
Anca Ghinea – 9 A
Mihai Panțucu – 9 A
Cosmin-Andrei Tamas – 10 A
Ilinca Rentea – 10 A
Teodora Voicu – 10 A

Saturday- Day 3

Today was the third day of the Romanian Masters of Mathematics and it started with a little bit of rain in the morning; we, the guides, woke up the contestants and guided them to "Tudor Vianu" National High School. On the way, some of the contestants stopped at Starbucks in order to eat something and cheer themselves up before the contest. When they arrived, they managed to get in the classes they were listed to.
After the contest was over, the teams met in the hallway and discussed the problems.

They seemed pretty sad, but we managed to ask them a few questions. The answers listed below are from Joao Vargas from Brazil, Zachary Chorman from USA. and one contestants from "Tudor Vianu’s" team: Miruna Mitu.

Interviewers (Vlad Diamandopol and Teodora Voicu): How was the contest? Was it harder than last year?
JV: I believe I did pretty much the same as last year, but this year, the problems from day 2 were easier.
ZC: This is my first time here so it is hard to tell, but practicing on other years’s problems, I can say that today's exam was very hard in particular. But I liked the problems, there were nice problems.
MM: This is my first time attending this competitition and the problems were harder than I had expected, but I found them very instructive. Also, this contest has taught me to focus better during a longer period of time.

I: How many problems did you manage to solve?
JV: I solved 2 of them completely and another 2 partially.
ZC: Umm... I solved problems one and three, so only 2 out of 6.
MM: I believe I did solve 2 subjects partially and none completely but I think next year I’ll do better.
I: What is the impression Bucharest has given you?
JV: I like it here very much, especially the parks.
ZC: It's a good question. It's a really nice city, but there wasn't a cultural shock. I was expecting it to look the way it does, apart from the language and cars that don't stop when you are crossing the street. But yeah, I liked my time here, I had a really good time.

I: What did you think about the guides? Were they helpful? How about the accommodation?
JV: The guides were great, they managed to teach me read in Romanian, which is not as hard as it seems and we also asked them to read in Portuguese and they did a pretty good job. They were very helpful and they took us anywhere we wanted. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would say the accommodation was a 6.
ZC: You guys really went over the top and it was great job, I appreciate it certainly. The accommodation was good, but we had problems with electricity on the first day and with the keys.

I: Did you like the food you ate here?
JV: We did not get a chance to eat traditional Romanian food but all the restaurants we went to were very good.
ZC: It was good but personally I am a picky eater, but out of what I have tried it was really nice.
I: Will you repeat this experience and come to Romania further on?
ZC: I would love to come to the country again next year, but I won’t go to this contest again here because my country selects participants in order to give more people the chance to visit certain places.

About 30-45 minutes later, the teams left with their guides. Some of them took a walk through the Kiseleff Park on their way back to Moxa, while discussing with the guides about the next activities. Related to this subject, some teams decided to stay and relax in their rooms after 4 and a half hours of stress and the others decided to go to different places. For example, Brazil team decided to go to Afi Palace Cotroceni in order to go ice-skating. They enjoyed it very much and they had fun. On their way there they managed to see more sights of Bucharest.

NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2
THE TEAM
STUDENTS:
Gabriela David - 10 A
Teodora Nevinglovschi – 10 B
Ana-Maria Petrache – 10 A
Agnes Ioana Talasman – 10 A
Andrei Ionut Paraschiv – 10 A
Popa David Alexandru – 10 A

On the second day of the event, just before the start of the contest, the atmosphere was filled with emotions and confidence. After they had finally dealt with their difficult tasks, contestants were ready to explore Bucharest. Naturally, some of the participants were still anxious about their results. Some of the teams found the problems much harder than they had expected.
After some time, everyone calmed down and the guides were able to take interviews from some of the students. Here is Pedro Oliveira from Brazil answering Ana Maria Petrache’s questions:
Q: What is your overall impression about Bucharest?
A: I like the city, I like the buildings, they are old but they don’t seem to be “degrading”. I like the weather a lot. This city has a nice atmosphere. The worst thing about it is that too many people smoke but I can see it getting better through the years.
Q: What do you think about this edition of the RMM?
A: It was pretty much the same atmosphere as last year. The first problem is usually something that we know how to solve, but it has some aspects that make it difficult, like calculus. RMM has interesting but hard problems.
Q: What would be the bad points of your experience here?
A: We don’t have Wi-Fi in the buildings where we sleep and this is horrible.
Q: Have you talked to other teams?
A: We sometimes try to talk to them but it never works out very well.
Q: What do you think about the guides?
A: The guides are awesome. They take us everywhere we want and we have had a great time talking to them about different topics like politics, history or the educational system. They have also taught us some words in Romanian, and we have taught them some words in Portuguese.

Around Bucharest

After the lunch every team talked with their guides about what sights they could visit in the afternoon and they decided to explore Bucharest together.

Everyone had an outstanding day. Some teams visited the Palace of the Parliament, others went on trips in Herastrau Park. Everyone was excited and relieved because the first day of the contest had ended.

NEWSLETTER ISSUE 1
THE TEAM


STUDENTS:
Oana Alexandru – 10A
Pasarin Andra – 10A
Staicu Corina – 10A
Ionescu Gabriel – 10A
Blidaru Catalin-Alexandru - 9A
Nevinglovschi Stefana – 10B

Thursday – Day 1
Today, February, 23rd, 2017, was the first day of Romanian Master of Mathematics. In the morning, the guides took the contestants to the Institute of Mathematics for a geometry conference. Thus, the students attended some preparation lessons for the contest. At the end, the students seemed to be delighted at the conference and they were still talking about some things discussed there.

By lunch, the guides had given the students a tour of the city, had talked and found out more about the contestants.
They had lunch at Moxa student canteen and then they had a rest. At 6 PM all the participants and their leaders met in Aula Magna of The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in order to attend the opening ceremony of the competition.

One by one, the teams were called in front of the room with their leaders to have beautiful photos taken of them holding their national flags.


Along with their guides, the competitors returned to Moxa for dinner and had an early night in order to be fully rested for the first day of competition.
During the participants' free time we made sure to ask our teams some questions. The answers listed below are team UK.
1. How do you feel? Nervous, excited, both?

N: Well, I've been to this contest in the past, so I can't say I'm nervous, but I'm definitely excited to participate.
H: It's my first time here, so I feel a bit nervous, since I've heard that it's quite difficult.
R: I pretty much feel the same as H.

2. Have you been to this contest before?

N: Yes.
H: No.
R: I participated last year as well.

3. What are your expectations with regards to the difficulty of the problems?

N: It's definitely going to be hard, since it's generally seen internationally as one of the hardest math contests in the world, but I don't think it's going to be harder than last year.
H: I expect it to be quite difficult, from what I've heard, but I'm not worried.
R: I'm also not worried, because I've been here before and I know what to expect.

4. How do you like Bucharest so far?

N: It's very interesting. The architecture is quite different from London, where I'm from, but there are a lot of sights to be seen, such as the House of Parliament, which we visited last year.
H: I'm also from London, so I have the same opinion as N.
R: I'm from Cambridge...which is also different in a lot of aspects from Bucharest.

5. Would you like to come here again in the future?

N: Well, I'm going to be in my final year in the future, so I don't think I'm going to participate anymore after this.

Me: Well yeah, but would you like to come to Romania again?

N: Oh, definitely.
H: Same.
R: Same.

Me: These are all the questions, thank you for taking part in our interview.