Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! MC again. 2022 is a year of change to me. My school, my subjects studying, my jobs, my titles, my social circles, how I behave, how I look, my weight, my age… they have all changed. Alas! They changed so fast. Here I am writing for reflecting how I have done in 2022.

I am including reflections for a few aspects in my life this year.

Friendship

It is great that I have made some new friends and became more outgoing than ever. I have known more people, not only those I have known from transferring to DBS, but also in other competitions and social gatherings. IMO Training, IPhO Training, APLO, SSPDOSA, and also some people that I reached out randomly (lol). That feels great when I expand my social circle.

In particular, I have made some great friends in 2022, including Bosco Wang, Ian Pau and Astin Lo. They are really great friends of mine. How they are ‘great’ are not only ‘great’ academically, but also in character. They are all friendly, outgoing and it is great chatting with them. :D Of course, that also includes Daniel Roffey, which is quite a great friend of mine. He is quite humorous and he shares views that provoke my thinking. Jasmine Au, who is also a friend of mine, is caring and kind as well. :D Love you guys!

There are also many orz figures I have known. As aforementioned, Bosco is an IOI awardee. Moreover, Fergus Lai, a friend of mine, was a 3-time IMO medalist, Kevin Xie, another friend of mine, got Gold in IOL and Silver in IOI. Brian Chau, another friend of mine, got into the International Brain Bee finals… It is great learning from them. orzzzz

However, I (nearly) messed up a few friendships. I am sorry, Tom, that I sometimes behaved not so well and made you disappointed. Really sorry about it.

Anyway, thank everyone who are my friend in the last year!

Olympiads

Math Olympiad

This year is the second year for me in the IMO Training. It is great that I have grown up in the field of MO a lot in the past year.

Going to the IMO Training is not only a matter of learning new MO techniques and ideas, but also a social gathering. I have known some friends from the IMO Training, and of course, they are all prodigies. It is great taking up the minds from them.

Moreover, my MO performance was boosted by a lot. Last year, I only got 8+0+7 in the first three TST, while this year I think I got 20+16+17 (full marks: 42+28+28). Although I skill issued in all the tests (I actually could have AKed all the tests), it is already a great leap forward. However, to get into the IMO Alternate Team, effort must be paid, since there are many orz dudes this year (but also many not-so-orz dudes too). Best of luck to me!

Sadly, I still could not get a good result in IMO HK Prelim. I skill issued a lot, and made a lot of careless mistakes. Else, I could have gotten a Silver.

I joined AMC for the first time in life in November. I got a pretty good (?) result in AMC 10A - a shiny 108, but that was bad for me. I skill issued, and I could have gotten 141 if I performed the best, or 123 if I performed just better. However, that was enough for getting into AIME. For 12B, due to some issues, my results were not known yet, but I think I got a 90-something, which was quite bad. Hope I could do better in the following AIME.

Physics Olympiad

This year is also the second year for me in IPhO Training. It is also great I have grown up in the field of PhO a lot in the past year.

I joined the IPhO Training (‘Physics Enhancement Programme’), but due to the time clash with the IMO Training, I only attended like 1/5 of all the lectures. To score well in the selection tests, I had to binge like 10 lecture notes within a week, twice! This was a torture to me. Luckily, I skill scored not bad - at least, enough for me to get into Phase 2.

However, my main aim is not PhO, but MO and LO. I think I will quit in Phase 2 - I won’t be able to advance to Phase 3 anyways. I will still do HKPhO, SYPhO and Pan-Pearl though.

My PhO performance was also boosted by a lot. I got a First Honour in the HKPhO 2022, which was better than in 2021, where I got a Second Honour only. I also got a Merit award in the SYPhO 2022, which is great (since I did not get anything in SYPhO 2021).

Linguistics Olympiad

2022 is the first year I do LO. Before that, I have no knowledge on what LO is, but I know some LO things, which apparently helped me in my LO career.

I started LO since I searched up ‘Kevin Xie’ and found that he joined IOL 2021 and he got Gold, and then I tried the problems of HKLO, and they were not hard. Then, I started LO by applying for HKLO 2022 (I originally wanted to apply for HKLO training but I skill issued and it was already past the deadline). Although I had some prior knowledge of Linguistics, it was not enough for a Linguistics contest. Therefore, I have to self-study a lot of materials, and learn the Linguistics techniques by myself. This was not easy for me, but I strived to do my very best.

The results were showed on my performance in HKLO 2022. I got Bronze (Rank 9/51), which was quite good and surprising for me. I didn’t expect to get such a good prize, and was surprised that 50.xx marks were enough for Bronze. I was eligible to do the coming APLO 2022, and this motivated me to do even better in APLO 2022. Therefore, again, I went to numerous websites to polish my LO technique.

Finally, I got Bronze (Rank 6/16 in HK; Rank 32 overall), which was quite good for me. Yet, it was a bit of a pity that I could not do the IOL 2022. Yet, I was not disappointed - I was a newbie, so it was normal for me not being able to do the IOL for the first year of getting engaged in LO.

However, the tables had turned. Later, Kevin Xie reached out to me and asked if I was interested in doing the IOL 2022. He was asking so since he had to do PR China NOI 2022 (SPOILER: IT WAS LATER POSTPONED), and it clashed with IOL 2022, and Kevin chose to do NOI. However, my dad opposed to that for some reasons, and hence I had to give up the place as well.

Hope that I could really make into the IOL Team this year. :)

Informatics Olympiad

I started OI this year. I did not really know what OI is until the start of the year, when I joined the JSOI lockout Discord Server somehow. I then learned some OI things, and started learning C++. However, I did not know much in OI until I transferred to DBS - when Mr Chan, the TiC of MO and OI Team told me to do a Beginners’ Gym, where my OI techniques rocketed.

However, my OI performance was still bad, as compared to other OIers who had more than one year of experience. Therefore, in minicomps, I always die/come at the last few places. Also, I had to rush and do 250 tasks on HKOI Judge, which took me a long while to finish.

Albeit all the efforts to improve my OI skills, I still died in the Team Formation Test for HKOI squad. I came like 11th in the Junior Division, which was very, very bad for me - Mr Chan told me compete in the Junior Division (for those without context, HKOI is a OI contest, where each school could send up to 8 contestants each in Junior and Senior Divisions).

At least, I have worked hard to improve my OI skills, but still, I could not achieve what I should achieve. Really sad for that.

However, after all, my focus is not OI, but MO and LO. Best of luck to me in my MO and LO career.

Academics

I still maintained a good academic performance this year (at least true before I transferred to DBS - I don’t know my Midyear Exam scores yet). I got a few scholarships, which is quite great.

I do not do IB. The tuition fees for IB is too high and I am not really capable of doing IBDP - I am not a good presenter and my speaking skills are bad. I chose Physics, Chemistry, Economics and M2 as my DSE electives (I am not doing 4 electives despite the fact that the HKEAA now allows it in the 2025 HKDSE Exam). In my opinion, they are easier (to study, and to get level 5**) than other electives. The reason that I did not choose Biology is that I am not good in Biology.

I am doing equally well in Physics and Economics. F4 Physics is easy to me since I do PhO, which helped me a lot. F4 Economics is also easy to me, since I have learned some Economics concepts in F3 (my old school has a subject which is the combination of Economics and BAFS). Chemistry is not so easy to me, but it is also fine.

I wish to get top 3 in Form this year. Best of luck to me! :D

Miscellaneous

SSPDOSA

SSPDOSA is quite a nice experience to me.

I remember I joined SSPDOSA when a teacher in MYC told me to join it. I filled in the form and I was eligible to do the Heats, but SSPDOSA skill issued and could not send an email to me notifying that. Luckily, I watched my friend’s status and noticed that, and after some moment, I could do the heats.

Later, I qualified the finals, before that, I had to join a camp on 4th June (yes I remembered the date exactly). I knew some new people, and the ‘group parents’ were quite nice. The detective games were quite fun as well.

However, I fried in the finals, which was very bad. I was completely disappointed when I knew I got Commendable Students Award only. I was really depressed for a while. Imagine the Outstanding Students could join KROSA and got awards…

After that, there were activities organized by the SSPDOSA to join before the Award Ceremony. However, due to time clash with other activities (mainly IMO Training), I had to give up the opportunities to join the activities. Therefore, 80% of the people in the SSPDOSA are unknown to me.

It is a pity that I could not get the Outstanding Students Award, and I missed so many activities.

MuseScore

I am an avid MuseScore user. I sometimes arrange scores in MuseScore and upload them to musescore.org, which is nice.

Conclusion

2022 was a fruitful year. I got many thing throughout the year.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and hope we all can flourish in the year of 2023! :D