Resumo

VALLE ESPINOSA, María del Consuelo; JUAREZ RAMIREZ, María Araceli  e  GUZMAN OVANDO, María Esperanza. General Strategies for the Resolution of Problems in the Mexican Olympic of Mathematics. REDIE [online]. 2007, vol.9, n.2, pp.1-11. ISSN 1607-4041.

This article reports the general strategies identified in the resolution of the problems presented in the admission tests of the State Olympic of Math for the State of Puebla, Mexico. The answers of 91 competitors from the higher and medium higher education system were analyzed, whose ages fluctuated between 14 and 17 years. Without giving importance to find the solution of the problem presented, the competitors exposed in writing their results and they supported their answers being separated. With them, a database of 546 writings was created, where it those where the competitor identified the unknown, the data and the condition of the problem was selected, besides the proposition of one or several solution strategies. Subsequently, the strategy was described verbally, the frequency of use was calculated and the incident of the strategy in the different branches of the mathematics that belongs the given problems; the proposed strategy or strategies were developed by the competitor, identifying the phases of progress, until arriving to the complete solution. The results showed that only 5% of the writings presented the problems with complete solution, what evidence the need to systematize the courses of state training for the National Olympic, which importance situates in its purpose: to prepare the youths for the contest and to enrich the System of Higher Education on the state of Puebla with students interested in studying scientific careers, enabled to develop their hypothetical-deductive reasoning with success.

Palavras-chave : Mathematics; problem solving; cognitive processes; testing.