Ilonggo Math whiz brings home silver for PHL in world Math tilt

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

A 13-year-old Math whiz continued his streak of bringing pride to the country in the field of math competitions, after bagging the silver medal last Monday at the final round of the World Mathematics Invitational (WMI) in Seoul, South Korea.

Gihun Ng Yoo, a Grade 9 student of St. Joseph’s School in Iloilo City was second best out of all contestants in his level in the WMI. He hurdled tough mathematical questions, including square roots, polynomials, linear functions, quadratic equations, word problems, math puzzles, logical reasoning, series, and sequences, and other prominent areas in the subject.

The WMI hosted 1,275 pupils and students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 levels from 17 countries including the United States of America, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Iran.

Prior to this, Yoo had won gold during the elimination rounds of the contest which was held virtually, thereby securing his place in the final rounds.

Yoo told the media on Friday that around 6 to 8 weeks before the competition in Seoul, he had been training 3 times a week with his teachers Irish Mae Palomo and Albert Gumana.

Gumana shared that they used reviewers from previous math contests, as well as other resource materials similar to the contest, in order to prepare.

“In some aspects, [preparing] was easy, in some aspects, it was hard. It really depends on the question, but like every question and answer [in math], it is purely theoretical,” Yoo shared regarding his preparations.

“I was expecting somewhere like Bronze, but I got silver so I was mostly surprised,” he said about his result.

There was a scare in the days leading up to the contest, as he had contracted dengue fever shortly before he left the country, but he nevertheless went ahead despite his condition.

“It was already planned and I didn’t want my preparations to go to waste,” he remarked.

Palomo said that Yoo did not feign confidence while preparing for the tilt and kept going in their training, even amid his short bout with dengue.

“We worried if he would be able to fly out or not, because you cannot sacrifice your health condition, but he was really persistent to go,” Palomo narrated.

“His feedback after the competition was that it was difficult. He was even telling [his mother] and me, ‘Don’t expect a better medal in this competition, because it was really hard,’ so his silver medal finish really surprised us. Knowing him, we didn’t lack in preparation. I was telling my other co-teachers who were also training him that if he found it difficult, other students may also have had difficulty as well,” she stated.

She said that children like Gihun who excel in mathematics have a better advantage when it comes to taking on other subjects in school.

“For application, it is more advantageous for someone who excels in math because other subjects can be learned. Math is considered as one of the highest subjects and most students really struggle with math. It cannot be learned in memorization but in math you need to analyze the question or topic presented. They have an advantage in logical reasoning,” she said.

Yoo has been competing and winning in international math competitions in previous years, recently winning several medals at the Asian Science and Mathematics Olympiad for Primary and Secondary Schools in Indonesia and Bronze during the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad last April.

Like the contest in Indonesia, Yoo is the only learner from Iloilo who had represented the Philippines in his level in South Korea.