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Six of the academic Olympians from Triam Udom Suksa. They didn’t all win medals, but they all had an unforgettable experience. From left (back row): Tirasan Khandhawit, Patompong Ungprasert, Kanok Preativatanyou. From left (front row): Chawita Netirojjanakul, Pitchaya Sithi-amorn, Sira Sriswasdi. |
The success of Thailand’s intellectual athletes, its academic Olympians, on the other hand, generally receives far less attention. Few people seem to realise that the complexity of their challenge rivals that of a tennis champion or an Olympic boxer. They, too, must go head to head with the world’s best, solving problems and performing tasks far beyond the capacity of the rest of us.
Over the two days of Olympic biology competition, for example, contestants must complete two four-hour sessions, one focusing on theory, the other encompassing four one-hour hands-on labs. For Olympic chemists, it’s ten full hours of competition, including one session in which contestants must carry out three complex labs simultaneously.
To qualify for the Academic Olympics, a contestant must be under 20 years of age and must have passed a rigorous screening process by a national team. In Thailand, the competition is open to schools throughout the country, but year after year, one school – Bangkok’s Triam Udom Suksa – tends to dominate, sometimes providing half or more of a subject-area’s competitors.
This, of course, is not totally surprising since Triam Udom is one of the most selective of Thailand’s elite secondary schools. But, as the learning post found out on a recent visit to the school, there is more to the story than top-quality students.
Whole-hearted support
 Archan Anchalee Prakakiet says Triam Udom has a strong commitment to the Academic Olympics. |
Assistant Academic Director Anchalee Prakaikiet attributes Triam Udom’s success in the Academic Olympics to good overall resources. “We have good students, teachers, parents and alumni. Our parents, teachers and former students are very supportive.
“We’re lucky in many ways. We have good teachers in many branches of study. We have famous teachers, especially physic teachers. And we have teachers who love the school,” Archarn Anchalee said.
There is also a strong sense of commitment and obligation at Triam Udom, she says, in helping top students succeed. “We’ve discovered gifted students. If we don’t support them to the best of their potential, it’s like we have failed in providing them opportunities to develop. It’s like we have rough diamonds in our hands. If we don’t cut them, we won’t get jewels.”
Financial support for the programme, said Archarn Anchalee, comes largely from parents and alumni. “We use the money from the Parents and Teachers Association and our alumni association. We’ve just organised a tea party to raise money for both sending-off and welcome-back parties.”
As a result she says, the school can give pocket money to the squad members and offer rewards for medallists. “There is a100,000 baht reward for gold medallists, 70,000 for silver and 50,000 for bronze,” she explains.
Former students who have competed at the Olympic level are also enlisted to help train Triam Udom students who try out for the national teams.
In addition, all schools hoping to send participants to the international competitions have benefited by the establishment of the Foundation for Academic Olympics Promotion and the Development of Science Education Standards under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Kalayanee Vattana.
The foundation sponsors centres in both in Bangkok and upcountry at local universities. Triam Udom itself hosts a centre preparing participants for the Physics Olympiad.
Making the grade
 From left: Archarn Pensiri Puangsri, Archarn Waraporn Thirasiri, and Archarn Chaweewan Pusaksrikit. |
The national Olympic teams are selected in several stages. In mathematics, for example, there were initially over 4,000 applicants from around the country. This was whittled down to 50 in the first round test – 28 of whom were from Trium Udom. Round two cut the number down to 25 and the final team consisted of six competitors.
Three came from Triam Udom. Tirasan Handhawit, who won a silver medal at this year’s math Olympiad in Glasgow, Scotland, was one of them. Currently in his last year at the school, he explained how the Olympic competition was carried out.
“We arrived on July 22, he said, for the opening ceremony. The competition was held on the 23rd and 24th. Each day we were given two and a half hours for three problems.”
The judging, Tirasan explained, took place two or three days afterwards. Interestingly, his teacher took an active role in the evaluation process, working together with representatives of the International Mathematics Organisation.
“The problems were quite complex. They differed from the general problems covered in ordinary math classes. I could write the problems down for you, but I’m afraid they might be discouraging for other students,” Tirasan said.
 Patompong Ungprasert |
“It’s not anything like our entrance exam,” added teammate, Patompong Ungprasert, who received honourable mention. “We had to write down all the details of our solutions instead of just giving the answer. This is what Thai students lack. They’re used to multiple choice questions.”
The problems, in fact, went far beyond the standard secondary math curriculum. Thus, to get prepared, the math team members, like those in other Olympic subjects, attended a one-month intensive camp run by university professors.
Triam Udom teachers also play a key role, particularly during the first two rounds of selection. “We analyse content from old test papers, explained chemistry teachers Pensiri Puangsri and Chaweewan Pusaksrikit, and set up intensive training for them after school – both in the theoretical aspects of the subject and the labs.
“We also coordinate with Chulalongkorn University when students need content from the university level. Their lecturers sometimes even come here. We provide the students with extra materials at the Olympic level, such as videos of labs, old test papers and problems. It’s really all-year-round training,” biology teacher, Waraporn Thirasiri says.
Working with Olympic prospects is also valuable for the teachers, both teachers assert. “We get deeper knowledge and it helps us adjust our lab sessions in our regular classes. We are allowing students to be more independent, for example.”
 Chawita Netirojjanakul explains how the chemistry competition was carried out. |
The Chemistry Olympiad this year was in the Netherlands. The labs took place on the first day, explained silver medallist Chawita Netirojjanakul. “They looked at the final result, so we could use any method or any technique to get the correct result.
“The theoretical test was on the following day – a combination of many subjects. This was a subjective test – not multiple choice. They judged each step of our work and our process of thinking.”
Individual initiative
In computer science, says Archarn Peera Chimkong, the students themselves must take considerable initiative. “The computer courses taught at Triam Udom are nowhere near the Olympic level. The skills needed for the Olympics – especially the process of problem solving – are completely different from those developed in our current curriculum.
Pitchaya Sithi-amorn |
National team member Pitchaya Sithi-amorn began using the computer in Prathom two and began to program seriously in Matayom three and four.
“It was just for myself,” he said. “If I wanted the computer to do something, I’d program it myself. It was like playing.”
Playing the popular game Othello was, in fact, a part of his training in the computer camp preparing the Thai team for this year’s Olympiad in Korea. “We tried to teach the computer to be better than us.”
Pichaya unfortunately missed out on a medal. After a strong first day, he spent three fruitless hours on the second day trying to write a complex program. “I was a bit nervous,” he explained. “I didn’t get very far and I got a zero on that one. If I hadn’t been so excited I would have gotten a medal,” he said with a touch of regret in his voice.
Experience counts
One of Triam Udom’s most experienced academic Olympians is Kanok Preativiatanyou, a member of two national biology teams. “Last year I went to Belgium where I won a bronze medal and this year I went to Latvia where I got a silver” Kanok explained
Like other academic competitions, Konok said, medals are distributed on a percentage basis. “In biology, the top 10 percent of the competitors get the golds, the next 20 percent get silvers and the next 30 percent get bronzes.”
In Latvia, the lab competition came first. “The lab test had four parts, each worth 40 points and we had one hour for each. One of the lab problems, interestingly enough, was to calculate the age of a tree from its rings.
“You can’t just count the rings,” Kanok explained, “because they can be deceiving. False rings, for example, are formed in times of irregular rain or drought. We have to know the characteristics of the rings. Size also made it difficult. The smaller the rings were, the more difficult they were to count.”
The range of the results for this lab was surprisingly large. “The lowest score was four and the top was 40. I got 25,” Kanok recalled.
He did better in the other labs, gaining 30 points in molecular biology, 34 in plant biology and 38 in animal anatomy and morphology.
 Kanok Preativatanyou |
The theoretical section on the next day took four hours. There were two parts. Part A had 100 multiple choice items, Kanok said, while Part B was fill-in-the- blank, true-false and matching.
“The test was in English, but in order to minimise bias, our archarn translated it for us. The translated version had to be scrutinised by the central committee before the day of the test.
“The test was at eight in the morning and the afternoon before, our archarn received a copy of the test and was able to give input about whether the test items were appropriate in terms of such things as geographical bias, for instance.”
Unique experience
One obvious benefit for those students lucky enough to be chosen for a national academic Olympic team are university scholarships both here in Thailand or abroad. But that is only one incentive.
It is the experience itself that is the biggest draw for many participants. “The Olympic experience is unlike any other,” said Olympic mathematician Tirasan. “Money can’t buy it and only six people a year get the chance.”
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |