Chen Yu An, The Overall Winner of The 4th IJSO

I am Yu An, Chen from Taiwan, R.O.C. I hadn’t heard about any kind of international competition in science like International Junior Science Olympiad competition before I went to junior high school. Even I heard this kind of competition; I never thought I would attend it before. Although I was in the special class for intellectual students at the elementary school and attended some courses about creating and thinking, I was not a very outstanding student in studying and my level in mathematics was a little bit better than my other classmates.

I went to a nature science cram school to learn about the courses I was supposed to learn in second year when I was in first year of junior high school. During my studying at cram school, I found out the nature science was very interesting to me and the teacher at cram school even taught us some senior high school courses relating to our junior high school courses. Surprisingly, I absorbed them very well and was totally into them.

In the second semester of my first year of junior high school, I attended a campus International Junior Science Olympiad competition although I couldn’t represent my school for national competition but I was still quite happy for my progress. In the following year, I studied even much harder than before. Eventually, I passed campus and national competitions and stood out in a national selection, becoming a national representative. I never thought it was this smooth going from campus to national competition because I was not very outstanding in the elementary school and not like other students studying mathematics and science ahead of school schedule at cram schools but I was finally in top six in national competition. I think part of the reason why I was in top six is due to my good luck and the other is after becoming a national representative, I started absorbing very hard like an sponge whatever professors taught us.

I was doing well in International Junior Science Olympiad competition. I was awarded a gold medal and win the best theoretical prize. What I treasured very much is the opportunity to meet a lot of top students from all over the world and talk to them. It was quite a unique experience to know people having the same interest as you have although we didn’t talk deeply because of the language barrier but I know we all will continue to make great efforts for our common interest- science. I am very pleased with this competition where I could apply what I learned to it although I was under a lot of stress in the process of preparing for it but I will try to consider it a game and keep my passion for science. I am quite delighted that I met a lot of top students from all over the world. Now, I still keep contact with them and care for them. I am so happy that I could attend the competition. By doing so, I grew up a lot and looked at things from different angles. Attending International Junior Science Olympiad competition is a milestone in my life.