Steady efforts brings Awards, substantial college application information provided

HyunChon Kim
Translated by Kelly Choi

Korean Scientist and Engineer Association (KSEA) New England branch announced two winners with same score on the math competition, which was to award outstanding students in math in New England region.
The announced two winners, Dong-gil Shin (Newton North-High,11th) and Ha-young Kang (Lextington high, 11th) are the winners of 2009 and 2008 accordingly.

Besides Shin and Kang, a lot of winners of 2008~2009 won this year’s competition as well. In 11th graders category, 3 out of 5 were winners of last year, and 2 out of 5 were winners of last year in 10th, 8th, and 5th grader category.

Most of award winning students stated the questions were not challenging.  They mentioned they prepared the competition with preceding studying or practice questions.
“I have already covered advanced level questions from SAT preparation” said Na-rae Yoou, 11th grader. “I have been practicing with math practice sets” said Hae-hun Lee. Both won award in the competition.

However, not every student felt the questions were not challenging.  “The test was very challenging. I was puzzled with some questions. ” said some students participated the competition without particular preparation.  “I couldn’t prepare enough because I was lack of preparation materials” added the students.

From 4th grade to 11th grade, 131 students competed in the math competition, and 5 winners were prized each grade category; the first, second, third places and two excellence award.
 The winner list will be sent to the headquarter of KSEA ( Vienna, VA) and the winners will compete in a national wide  competition.

Information for parents. Harvard,MIT students share application tips
Detailed and fresh college application information was introduced at the seminar for the parents while students took the competition.

Sam-joo Do, a former KSEA president, presented information regarding SAT, ACT, AP, college application and application process. Do explained that the information was based on the information from the college board.
In addition, Hyung-joon Kwon and Jae-hyun Lim, Harvard accepted students, presented personal tips on college application. Phil-lip Kim and Se-eun Mok, current MIT students, demonstrated things to prepare to get into top schools.

They all emphasized “passion” and “individuality” in addition to academic performance. According to them, the most important factor was an unique essay, articulates one’s past experience with passion.
Moreover, there were guidance to get good recommendation letters from school teachers, and successful interview skills.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to hear about college application issues. It was very helpful to listen to college students’ real experience” Sang-ho Lee, father of 6th grader child, said.
However, Not everyone was impressed. “I have heard similar tips a lot.” said Hui-young Lee, 11th grader of  worcester high-school. “but I think sharing application experience was helpful” she added.