Outstanding Mathematical Science

Cheenta for Olympiads, ISI-CMI Entance

Academeic programs for students with an
exceptional interest in maths, physics and
computer science.
Since 2010, cheenta.com has
A
re you planning for a higher education in mathematical
trained thousands of students science? Then you may need a specific plan to reach
the highest seats of knowledge in India and abroad.
for math, physics and computer Olympiads play a very important role in this journey. Usually
science olympiad, ISI BStat, the best universities hold math olympiad success in highest
BMath Entrance and CMI esteem. Research projects play an important role too. Both of
these tools are great for falling in love with the subject.
Entrances.
Cheenta students have reached k For classes 1 to 5 we recommend three contests. Aus-
tralian Math Competition, Math Kangaroo and MOEMS.
premier universities such as The last one is for students in the United States.
Harvard, Oxford, MIT outside Be careful about other fake olympiads which may pro-
India and Indian Statistical mote rote learning and have a negative impact on the
child’s mind.
Institute, Chennai Mathematical k For classes 6 to 8 we recommend the following contests.
Institute, TIFR and IITs inside 1. American Math Competition 8
India for a research career in 2. University of Waterloo Contests
mathematical sciences. 3. NMTC Contests
4. MathCounts (if you are in US)
Featured book k For classes 9 to 12 we recommend AMC 10, 12 and IOQM
Math Circle by the Bay: Topics for Grades 1-5 (the first level of Math Olympiad in India). University of
Waterloo Contests, Singapore Math Contests and UKMT
are also great.

It is difficult to find great books for ele-

mentary school kids. This title by Givental
et. al. is one happy exception. It was born
out Math Circle activities in the Berkeley
region of California. The selection of prob-
lems and activities is outstanding.

All Cheenta programs are available online.

Math Olympiad ISI-CMI Entrance Program
Preparation for mathematical olympiads require careful plan-
Physics Olympiad Research for School ning. In this newsletter we discuss some of the useful tools
Computer Science Study abroad Program
[email protected]
for this. We recommend books and learning strategies that
students and parents can use.
22 Lake Place Road, Kolkata 700029
West Bengal, India
https://www.cheenta.com/
 Success Stories
Books for Olympiads
Since 2010 hundreds of Cheenta students have been successful in national and
While preparing for mathematical international math olympiads, ISI-CMI Entrances. Many of them went on to study
olympiads, there are many great books in premier universities in India and abroad. Here are some of the success stories
to choose from. The key is to select a from 2022-23.
few good titles and work on them cover
to cover.
Indian National Math Olympiad 2023 and IOQM 2022
For classes 1 to 5 IOQM is the first level of (real) Math Olympiads in India. Students in class 8
k Math Circle by the Bay: Topics for and higher are eligible to participate in this contest. Among lakhs of students who
Grades 1-5 by Ilya Zakharevich, Laura take part in this, only 628 students qualified for the next level. Among them 7
Givental, and Maria Nemirovskaya were from Cheenta.
k Math from Three to Seven: The They were Parth Vartak, Agastya Bhagwat, Aharshi Roy, Mann Shah, Abhinav
Story of a Mathematical Circle for Khetan, Sarvam Vora and Piyush Jha
Preschoolers by Alexander K. Zvonkin The next level of Math Olympiad in India is known as INMO. It is the national
k Mathematics can be fun by Yakov level math olympiad attended by students who have qualified in IOQM. 4 Cheenta
Perelman students qualified in INMO and were selected for IMOTC in 2023. This is out of 7
k Math Circles for Elementary School students from Cheenta who appeared for contest. They were among the top 70
Students by Natasha Rozhkovskaya rank holders in the entire country

For classes 6 to 8 1. Parth Vartak

k Mathematical Circles: (Russian Ex- 2. Abhinav Khetan
perience) by Dmitrii Vladimirovich
Fomin, Ilia Itenberg, and Sergei Alek- 3. Piyush Jha
sandrovich Genkin 4. Mann Shah
k Algebra by Alexander Shen and Israel
Gelfand
k Kiselev’s Geometry: Planimetry by Indian Statistical Institute and Chennai Mathematical Institute
Alexander Givental Entrance 2022
The BStat-BMath Entrance of Indian Statistical Institute and BSc. Math Entrance
For classes 9 to 12
of Chennai Mathematical Institute are among the most challenging high school
k Challenge and Thrill of Pre-College contests in the country. About 200 students from all over India qualify for them.
Mathematics by C. R. Pranesachar In 2022, eight of them were from Cheenta.
and V Krishnamurthy
k An Excursion In Mathematics. by M. Vemparala Bhuvan Mayur N Sastry Dwitimaya Sahoo
R. Modak Ryan Hota John Tom Shravani Parulekar
k Trigonometry by Israel Gelfand and Avishek Hazra Divyanshu Gupta
Mark Saul
k Complex Numbers from A to ...Z by American Math Competition 2022-23 (10 and 12)
Dorin Andrica and Titu Andreescu
k Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical American Math Competition (AMC 10 and AMC 12) are among the first levels
Olympiads by Evan Chen of Math Olympiads in the United States. However students from India and other
k Principles and Techniques in Combi- countries are allowed to participate in it. In 2022-23 eleven students from Cheenta
natorics by Chuan Chong Chen and succeeded in this international math olympiad.
KOH KHEE MENG
Aratrik Pal Aharshi Roy Neer Mehta
k Secrets in Inequalities by Pham Kim
Mann Shah Parth Vartak Nathan Jais
Hung
Soumabha Roy Nidhi Lohana Souradip Das
k Functional Equations by Venkatachala
Anika Chopra Aarush Kalia
k Test of Mathematics at the 10+2 Level
by East West Press (useful for ISI-CMI Several Cheenta students have been successful in the last year in easier contests
Entrances. such as AMC 8, Math Kangaroo, Singapore Math Contest, SASMO, ZIO, ZCO. Due
k Polynomials by Edward Barbeau to lack of space we omit their names from this newsletter. A big congratulations
to all successful children.

Dennis Sullivan won the Abel prize in 2022.

His favorite equation is ∂∂ = 0 or in other words, boundary of a boundary is nothing.
Coordinate geometry versus pure geom- By the given condition we have
etry p p
2× (x + t)2 + y 2 = (x − t)2 + y 2
Coordinate geometry is a powerful tool to solve geometry prob-
lems. However sometimes, using pure geometry, we can learn By squaring both sides and simplying we get
more about the inner workings of a problem that is hidden by
coordinate bashing. Here is an example. 5t 2 16t2
(x + ) + y2 =
3 9
Problem:
This is an equation of a circle whose center is on the line
A triangle ABC has a fixed base BC. If AB : AC = 1 : 2, BC but not at the center of BC. Hence we are done.
then the locus of the vertex A is
1. a circle whose centre is the midpoint of BC;
Pure Geometry
2. a circle whose centre is on the line BC but not the
midpoint of BC; The same problem can be done using pure geometry. First
choose the position of A between B and C. There is exactly
3. a straight line; one such point which divides the segment BC in 1 : 2 ratio.
Call that point A1 . Let BA1 = x. Then A1 C = 2x. Simi-
4. none of the above.
larly there is a point A2 on extended segment BC such that
A B
This problem is from ISI BStat Entrance 2008 (Objective A22 C = 12 . Then A2 B = 3x.
Problem 15). We solve this problem using two ways. First Now suppose A3 is any other position of A that is not on
we do some simple coordinate bashing. This readily reveals the line BC. Join A3 A1 , A3 A2 , A3 B, A3 C.
the answer. However next we use pure geometry techniques to
learn more about the problem.

Coordinate Bashing
Suppose coordinate of B = (−t, 0) and C = (t, 0) where t
is a constant number. That is without loss of generality we
assume the origin of the coordinate plane is at the midpoint of
BC. Since A is a moving point, we assume its coordinates to
be (x, y). Since it is given that AB 1
AC = 2 therefore we compute
using distance formula.
p
AB = (x + t)2 + y 2
p
AC = (x − t)2 + y 2 Now notice that by definition of the point A we have

A3 B A1 B 1
= =
A3 C A1 C 2
By angle bisector theorem, this implies that A3 A1 is the
internal angle bisector of ̸ BA3 C. Similarly A3 A2 is the ex-
ternal angle bisector of ̸ BA3 C. Hence ̸ A3 A2 A1 = 90◦
implying the point A3 is on a circle with diameter A2 A1 .

Cheenta Math Circle : Collaborations ing in mathematical sciences. This may include Math Circles,
teacher training, student-talent identification, math, computer
with rural schools science and physics olympiad programs and mathematical sci-
Beniagram is a remote village in Murshidabad district of West ence labs in future. Our dream is to energise the rural ed-
Bengal. On 4th March, 2023, Cheenta Team drove about 250 ucation ecosystem by brining in knowhow from the outside
kilometers from Calcutta to attend a school inauguration there. world.
The experience was interesting. Cheenta team has several members from rural and semi-
A few young men, Safiqul being one of them, have built a urban areas. One of the most important faculty member
residential English medium school for the masses in a village Raghunath, hails from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. Another fac-
near Farakka. They have kept the tuition fee much lower than ulty Tanmoy is from Purushottompur village in Medinipur dis-
other similar schools in the area. trict of West Bengal. Somnath, one of our admins, is from
Mathurapur village in South 24 Parganas.
Cheenta Math Circle program has been active for over 3
years now. Several students in our program are actively collab-
orating in rural schools from Sundarbans and Purulia district
to implement math circles in the style of eartern Europe.
India has one of the youngest work forces in the world. What
if we harness that potential at the rural level and promote in-
novation? We think this may untap one of the greatest reserves
They want to collaborate with Cheenta for capacity build- of human creativity that mankind has seen so far.
Sharygin Geometry Olympiad be the midpoints of AB and CD respectively. The circle
OP M meets for the second time segments AP and BP at
points A1 and B1 respectively, and the circle OP N meets
for the second time segments CP and DP at points C1
and D1 respectively. Prove that the areas of quadrilaterals
AA1 B1 B and CC1 D1 D are equal.

Day 1 - Grade 9
k Let BH be an altitude of right-angled triangle
ABC (̸ B = 90◦ ). An excircle of triangle ABH oppo-
site to B touches AB at point A1 ; a point C1 is defined
similarly. Prove that AC∥A1 C1 .

k Let circles s1 and s2 meet at points A and B. Consider

In 2022, Cheenta hosted the final round of Sharygin Ge- all lines passing through A and meeting the circles for the
ometrical Olympiad in Kolkata center for Indian participants. second time at points P1 and P2 respectively. Construct
This was in collaboration with the Organizing committee from by a compass and a ruler a line such that P1 A · AP2 is
MOSCOW CENTER FOR LIFELONG MATHEMATICAL EDUCA- maximal.
TION.
Sharygin Geometrical Olympiad is an international compe- k A medial line parallel to the side AC of a triangle ABC
tition on geometry. High-school students of four elder grades meets its circumcircle at points X and Y . Let I be the
(8-11 grades in Russia) are eligible to participate. There are two incenter of triangle ABC and D be the midpoint of the
rounds: qualification round per correspondence and a final arc AC not containing B. A point L lie on segment DI in
round. such a way that DL = BI/2. Prove that ̸ IXL = ̸ IY L.
The contest was held as an oral exam. That is, the partici- k Let ABC be an isosceles triangle with AB = = AC, P be
pants make their drafts and figures but don’t deliver a complete the midpoint of the minor arcAB of its circumcircle, and
paper, and they deliver their solutions in oral form to the Jury Q be the midpoint of AC. A circumcircle of triangle AP Q
using their drafts and figures. centered at O meets AB for the second time at point K.
The only possible marks are 1 (solved) or 0 (unsolved). Prove that lines P O and KQ meet on the bisector of angle
Each participant has three attempts to deliver the solution ABC.
of a given problem (of course, if he has got 1 then he stops to
deliver this problem).
Day 1 - Grade 10
Here are Day 1 problems. The Day 2 problems will be
published in the next newsletter. k Let A1 A2 A3 A4 and B1 B2 B3 B4 be two squares ori-
ented clockwisely. The perpendicular bisectors to seg-
ments A1 B1 , A2 B2 , A3 B3 , A4 B4 meet the perpendicular
Day 1 - Grade 8
bisectors to segments A2 B2 , A3 B3 , A4 B4 , A1 B1 at points
k Let ABCD be a convex quadrilateral with ̸ BAD = P, Q, R, S respectively. Prove that P R ⊥ QS.
2̸ BCD and AB = AD. Let P be a point such that
k Let ABCD be a convex quadrilateral. The common exter-
ABCP is a parallelogram. Prove that CP = DP .
k Let ABCD be a right-angled trapezoid and M be the mid-
nal tangents to circles ABC and ACD meet at point E,
point of its greater lateral side CD. Circumcircles ω1 and the common external tangents to circles ABD and BCD
ω2 of triangles BCM and AM D meet for the second time meet at point F . Let F lie on AC, prove that E lies on
at point E. Let ED meet ω1 at point F , and F B meet BD.
AD at point G. Prove that GM bisects angle BGD. k A line meets a segment AB at point C. What is the maxi-
k A circle ω and a point P not lying on it are given. Let mal number of points X of this line such that one of angles
ABC be an arbitrary regular triangle inscribed into ω and AXC and BXC is equal to a half of the second one?
A′ , B ′ , C ′ be the projections of P to BC, CA, AB. Find
the locus of centroids of triangles A′ B ′ C ′ . k Let ABCD be a convex quadrilateral with ̸ B = ̸ D.
k Let ABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral, O be its circumcen- Prove that the midpoint of BD lies on the common inter-
ter, P be a common points of its diagonals, and M, N nal tangent to the incircles of triangles ABC and ACD.

Admission open at Cheenta

Admission is open for the Cheenta Math Olympiad Program, Physics Olympiad Program and Informatics Olympiad Program.
We are also accepting students aspiring for ISI-CMI Entrances and research projects. We do not offer direct admission to
students. Visit www.cheenta.com to apply for a trial and selection class to get started.