Tatyana Marie Gonzaga, Grade IV student of the Universidad de Sta. Isabel (USI) has just come home from the 2008 China Primary School Mathematical Olympiad. Gonzaga is very proud of her bronze medal, a heavyweight award considering the kind of competition she participated in.

       The Philippine Star August 15, 2008 issue said that according to the Mathematics Trainers Guild of the Philippines, the competition is the second hardest math tournament in the world.

       For starters, not just anybody can participate in this Math Olympiad. The qualifying process is formidable. First step is to affiliate with the Mathematics Trainers Guild (MTG) by passing a tough qualifying exam. If your test results are good, you are privileged to train for ten Saturdays, at the end of which you are given an exam. Based on your exam results, you get an invitation for a three-day in-house training - this time in Gonzaga’s case the training was in Cebu. In her Grade III level alone (this is the MTG level), only 12 students nationwide out of 150 who trained, qualified for the 1-month training in Manila. This is also the first time in the whole history of MTG that a Grade III student (at the time that Gonzaga qualified) was admitted by MTG.

       When she started the one-month training, she was one of the nine alternate- designated international contestants. Three of the 12 at her level were finalists who were sure to compete internationally. At the end of the training, She became the fourth finalist, and the rest is history.

       She was sent to the China Olympiad, while the 3 other finalists were sent to the Singapore Olympiad.

       In China, there were 2 kinds of competitions: the Individual Competition and the Team Relay Competition.

       When she won the bronze medal for the Individual Competition, she was competing with all the delegates from all levels from all the participating countries including the Phillippines. It was a feat indeed, considering she is the youngest contestant in the Philippine delegation in that Olympiad (Grade III level competing with levels of up to Grade VII).

       The competition was held at Yichang No. 20 Middle School, almost 5 hours by bus from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, less than 2 hours from Xiamen. It was a long trip, but it was a road to glory for the Philippine delegation of 40 students: 1 won a silver medal, and all 48 other delegates won a bronze medal - a first for the Philippines in the history of the Math Olympiad.


Tatyana Marie Gonzaga (center) is flanked by USI BED Asst. Principal, Mrs. Claire de Hitta and USI President, Sr. Ma. Asuncion G. Evidente, DC, looking happy and proud of their China Math Olympiad medalist.