THE University of Perpetual Help Las Piñas Campus Grade 9 student won silver medal in the 2016 International Mathematics Wizard Challenge held at Bangkok, Thailand last July 20-24, 2016.
Phinam Jethro S. Garcia amassed a total of 240 medals and 82 merit awards in the said competition. The team is composed of 350 elementary and secondary students from Grades 1-10 who won 34 gold, 74 silver, and 132 bronze medals.
In our interview with Garcia, he said that he underwent a series of training sessions for the competition. He joined the Mathematics Olympiad Summer Training Program and at the same time had tutorial lessons from his math teacher.
“Joining the 2016 IMWC was not easy. It took me, almost, a year of training to really learn advanced lessons in math. The whole-year period was spent to elimination rounds until I qualified to join the Philippine team,” Garcia said. He added that winning a silver medal in the 2016 IMWC was a nice and fun experience.
It was not the first time that Garcia joined a math competition. He also joined the Asia Math Camp and took home a silver medal as well. When asked about his secret in winning the competition, he said, “Love the subject. If you love the subject, surely, you would be willing to study as hard as you can.”
The Philippines held the second overall ranking next to China (Guangzhou and Xiamen). Among the nine participating teams are India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Macau, and Thailand.