English page

FKS - The Physics Correspondence Seminar

FKS is a competition in physics for secondary school students, running throughout the whole school year. In each semester, we issue three sets of problems, each of which you have to solve, write up your solutions and send them to us before the specified deadline. You can use ordinary mail, e-mail or our web interface to submit your solutions. After the deadline, we mark and comment your solutions and send them back to you together with our model solutions and results. After each semester, approximately 30 top participants are invited to a week-long camp full of games, sports, lectures, and above all, great people who share the interest in physics.

FKS has two categories; category B is for younger students (more than two years before graduation) and category A for older sudents (of course, younger students are invited to compete as well). Each problem is usually worth 5 points (more if it is extra challenging) and there are normally four problems in each set. A good solution to the problems should include not only the answer, but also arguments and comments about why it is correct. The problems tend to be non-standard and sometimes more challenging than what you may be used to in school, but they never lack originality and links to real life.

Other Activities

Apart from the correspondence seminar and its camps, the FKS team organizes other physics-related activities during the year. One of them is the yearly Physics Problem Drive (Náboj FKS), a large event where teams of five students solve short problems in a limited amount of time (1,5 hours).

There is also an online automated version of the Problem Drive (Online Náboj), where you can do timed practice or just solve past problems on your own.

For those who find problems in FKS too easy, or just like to challenge themselves even more, there is FX, a separate 'hardcore category' of FKS.

More ad-hoc activities are organized throughout the year, many of them in cooperation with the Correspondence Mathematical Seminar KMS and the Correspondence Seminar in Programming KSP. If you are interested in math or programming, check out their websites for more info.

English Language Issues or "what now?"

Solutions in English are always welcome in FKS as well as in FX - even if you are Slovak and would like to try to exercise your English writing skills, we encourage you to do so. Problem statements and exact rules are not normally available in English, but we will provide English translation and language support on request. For these or for more information on FKS and its activities, just write us on info(on)fks.sk and we will do what we can.