MISTAKES FROM THE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS THAT IMPACT STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN MATHEMATICS COMPETITIONS: AN EXAMPLE

The knowledge and skills a student needs in order to perform well on mathematics competitions are usually more and at a higher level compared to school mathematics. But school mathematics, and particularly perfecting the main properties, theorems, lemmas and postulates from the school curriculum, as well as when and how to apply them, can significantly impact the students' performance on mathematics competitions. This paper discusses a specific example of a problem given on a team selection test for selecting a national team for a regional competition, and the mistakes from the school mathematics which the tested students made, without looking for reasons or explanations of these mistakes.