Twenty-six Taiwanese students got a perfect score on last year's annual American Mathematics Competition 8, but academics yesterday said the performance was not indicative of math ability among Taiwanese students.
"The sample size in Taiwan is skewed because unlike Singapore, the AMC 8 test in Taiwan is not a mandatory exam for all students. Math teachers often only encourage their top students to take the tests and those who volunteer to take it usually know they will perform well on it," said Ho Yang-ming (
According to 2006 AMC 8 statistics, 121 students from Taiwan were among the 289 students out of the 147,000 test takers from 22 countries that achieved perfect scores.
"Last year, 41.8 percent of the perfect scores came for Taiwan but the figure slipped down to only 20.16 percent this year," he said.
This year, 8,013 Taiwanese students volunteered to take the test and 26 received a perfect score on the test, which consisted of 25 questions.
Taiwan's overall average score of 15.26 was higher than the global average score of 9.87.
Chang Lai-ho (
Peter Shiue (
"In the US, parents are more hands-off on their children's academic development. But Taiwanese parents often force their kids to excel in a certain subject," he said.
He added that those who perform well on the AMC 10, the next level of AMC 8, can opt to take another test called the American Invitational Mathematic Examination to sift out the naturally gifted math talents.
Shiue said although AMC is not a mandatory element for US college applications, it is often a big plus for anyone who performs well on the test.
The test is recognized internationally, so Taiwanese students who do well can use it in their application portfolios if they wish to enroll in a foreign university.
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