Manila student bags bronze in Math Olympiad

MANILA, Philippines - A senior high school student from a Catholic school in Manila bagged a bronze medal in the 22nd Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad (APMO) held recently.

Carmela Antoinette Lao, a fourth year student of St. Jude Catholic School, received a bronze medal after garnering a score higher than 14, the Science Education Institute (SEI) reported yesterday.

SEI said the Philippines ranked 25th among 33 participating countries with a total of 298 contestants.

SEI said the APMO is an annual international mathematics competition for high school students from Asian and Pacific-rim countries.

Lao, along with Henry Jefferson Morco of Chiang Kai Shek College and Zheng Rong Wu of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School, will compete in the 51st International Mathematics Olympiad to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan next month.

Lao won a bronze medal in the 50th IMO held last year in Bremen, Germany. She was the first Filipina to get the prestigious award.

Participants in the APMO are given a four-hour exam consisting of five questions of varying difficulty and each having a maximum score of seven points.

The contest questions are collected from the contestants at the end of the APMO and are to be kept confidential until the Senior Coordinating Country posts them on the official APMO website.

Contestants are not allowed to discuss the problems over the Internet until the date that the results are posted.

Launched in 1989, the APMO “aims to discover, encourage and challenge mathematically-gifted students in all Pacific Rim countries,” the SEI said.

Lao is a recipient of the Special Science Scholarship Grant given by the Department of Science and Technology to Filipino students who win a medal at prestigious international math or science competitions and opt to pursue science and technology priority courses in the undergraduate and graduate levels.