Welcome to ORMC

Fall 2024 Quarter Information

The Fall 2024 quarter enrollment in all ORMC classes is now closed.

Attendance policy: if a student misses two or more classes for the reasons we do not consider excused absences, we may dis-enroll the student from the program. We do not consider attending sports and music events, travel, and other activities as excused absences.

• First day of classes: Sunday, 9/29
• AMC 10/12 A: Wednesday, 11/6, time and room TBA
• No classes: Sunday, 11/10 (Veterans Day weekend)
• AMC 10/12 B: Tuesday, 11/12, time and room TBA
• No classes: Sunday, 12/1 (Thanksgiving weekend)
• Last day of classes: Sunday, 12/8
• All classes will be taught in person

Special event

On 12/8, at 1:00 - 3:00 PM, in a room TBA, we will have a special event, named My Favorite Math Competition Problem, to honor Tiger (Qiao) Zhang winning gold medal at the International Math Olympiad in 2024. Four speakers will each present their favorite math competition problem, including a solution and necessary mathematical background.

• Nikita Gladkov, graduate student at UCLA Department of Mathematics, IMO silver 2015.
• Sucharit Sarkar, professor at UCLA Department of Mathematics, head of UCLA Putnam training.
• Diana Tolu, undergraduate student at UCLA Department of Mathematics, IMO silver 2021.
• Tiger Zhang, high school student and ORMC volunteer instructor, IMO gold 2024.

The event will be filmed. The recording will be posted on the ORMC YouTube channel. Students of all the levels from Intermediate 2 up are strongly encouraged to attend. Parents are welcome subject to the seat availability. 

Donations:

Donations form a crucial component of the Circle's budget. Quarterly donations at the level of $300 per student are needed to sustain the high quality of our program.  Please consider ORMC as a part of your giving plans this season! Donations are not a factor in enrollment decisions and do not entitle your child to enrollment.

Fall 2024 Schedule:

Summer 2024 ORMC students and instructors wearing Jane Street t-shirts with a cool math problem: Cut a cake randomly n times. What is the expected number of pieces?

ORMC Math Videos

• A 40 sec. intro to the Circle:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsyIks8ZvDk
• Binary Magic, a Trick:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5jK2NXCFY
• Binary Magic, an Explanation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSPX0vANJA
• Word puzzles, permutations, and computers, part 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoU44qFJ95E&t=391s
• Word puzzles, permutations, and computers, part 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5CGkO0GlR4&t=44s

Satellite Math Circles

ORMC may designate some Math Circles as ORMC satellites. A request for such a designation should be sent to the ORMC director. To qualify, a Math Circle 

1. has to be free-of-charge for participating students; 

2. have a substantial part, 50% or more, of their curriculum based on the ORMC curriculum; 

3. have instructors with ORMC training; and 

4. operate in close contact with ORMC so that ORMC could attest to the quality of the instruction.

• An ORMC Advanced 1 student, Lawrence Pang, along with his six friends, continues their ORMC Satellite Program at Wittmann Elementary School. The class was moved to an in-person format, doubling the number of students. The students found the curriculum and Math Circle methods to be vastly more fun and engaging, especially with the in-person format and interpersonal interaction that comes with it. Lawrence and his team plan to continue in-person classes to expand their community impact and help everyone interested get the Math Circle experience.
• This is the third year that Leonardo (Leo) Lam, currently an Advanced 1 student at ORMC, and his team of assistant instructors are running an ORMC satellite program in the Upland Unified School District. The program began with a Circle at a local high school teaching the ORMC curriculum to math-inclined students from three elementary schools in the district. Leo and his team were the first to start a Math Circle in the Inland Empire region of CA. In year two, the Circle grew to include students from five out of ten elementary schools in the district. Recently, Leo established a second ORMC satellite at a local elementary school in partnership with the school's Saturday absence recovery program. Leo also improved the quality of instruction by recruiting and training his high school peers. In year three, student participation has reached nine out of ten elementary schools. Moving forward, Leo's goal is to further expand the satellite program, providing more support to the district's initiative in absence recovery.

Thank you notes

• ORMC would like to thank the Circle's major donor, Sierra Chen, for her unwavering support.
• ORMC would like to thank Jane Street for their donation.
• ORMC would like to thank Prof. Sucharit Sarkar for supporting the Circle through his NSF RTG grant.
• The Circle would like to thank the Schlessinger family for providing food and beverages for the beginning and end of the year parties for ORMC instructors for three years in a row.
• The Circle would like to thank Julie Haubner for organizing two meetings of the Parents' Club, one with a college counselor, Gregg Murray, Director of Life Planning at Vistamar School, and another with Kanak Malshe, Bar Raiser and Software Development Manager at Amazon.
• The Circle would like to thank all the parents helping with fundraising.