Pascal Talks with Zhang Chenxi, Raffles Institution

Chenxi always realised her affinity for Maths at a very young age. She realised this when her mother taught her algebra and cross-multiplication in Primary 2 and she was instantly able to link this to the concept of models. She grew to appreciate proofs of the infinitude of primes and the Pythagorean Theorem, which led to her studying Math Olympiad in Primary 5. Since then, she has been exposed to a large variety of intriguing problems, with her favorite being Geometry. She thoroughly enjoyed how solving each Geometry problem was like finding the correct directions out of an unknown territory, giving her a rush of adrenaline every time she managed to solve one of those.

In 2019, Chenxi was selected as one of the three girls to represent Singapore in the China Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad at Wuhan Foreign Language School, in which she was up against girls from other Asian countries and the various states of China. She eventually attained Silver at the competition, earning her a spot in the National Team. To her, the most fulfilling takeaway from the competition was the amazing breakfast served at the hotel and how she managed to watch Ne Zha for the second time in the cinema in China.

Being put in such a highly competitive environment with such a skewed gender ratio, Chenxi has never felt like a pariah. To her, it was empowering to learn that she could be on par with so many boys, and she felt like she was treated as an equal. There are ample opportunities for girls which she has benefitted from, such as the Accelerated Math Program jointly held by RGS and the Gifted Education Branch which selects students to learn the Math curriculum a year in advance. She was the only one selected in the batch, and given the special opportunity to work with a one-on-one tutor who patiently explained a lot of her queries.

Chenxi is confident that the skills she acquired in Math Olympiad and the many different problems she got to tackle have strengthened her problem-solving skills and pattern-recognition skills. These skills are critical for her to pursue an undergraduate degree in Maths and potentially a career in Data Analytics, in which she is required to draw insightful conclusions from large amounts of data and make apt predictions.

“People always think Math is this abstract, fluffy subject.” Chenxi remarked, “But when you put yourself out there, you see how many of today’s problems can be solved with techniques that require Math at its core. Even Machine Learning itself is heavy in Math intuition, and even fields like Biology and Climate Change which seemed divorced from Math require a lot of intricate and complex models to execute those calculations. It’s crazy how much Math can do.”

  • China Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad 2019: Silver, Represented Singapore
  • Singapore Math Olympiad : Junior, Senior, Open Gold
  • American Math Olympiad 10A, 10B AIME qualifier
  • American Math Olympiad 12A, 12B AIME qualifier
  • International Mathematical Modeling Challenge 2020-2021 Merit
  • Singapore International Mathematical Competition 2.0 2022 Distinction and Special Prize
  • Singapore Physics Olympiad 2022: Silver
  • Singapore Physics League 2023: Gold