International Mathematics Olympiad

[GerrySly]

After Terence Tao got mentioned by my teacher a while ago I gave him a quick wiki and found out he went to the IMO when he was like 11 or something. I took a look and a lot of the competitors are freakishly good.

Anybody been to the IMO? Gotten close? It seems the competition is dominated by China or Japan are there education systems just drastically superior to ours? They got like 6 gold medals at the last event, crazy...

[humph]

I know a couple of people from uni who've done maths, physics, or biology olympiads. Some are about my level, some are RIDICULOUSLY smart (as in they have an average of 99.75 in their uni subjects).

Countries like China dominate for a few reasons. For one, they have a lot more students to choose from, and their maths system is more advanced than ours anyway. They also pick students earlier on and work with them longer and harder (lolz) on training for the IMO.

[periwinkle]

I know a couple of people from uni who've done maths, physics, or biology olympiads. Some are about my level, some are RIDICULOUSLY smart (as in they have an average of 99.75 in their uni subjects).

Countries like China dominate for a few reasons. For one, they have a lot more students to choose from, and their maths system is more advanced than ours anyway. They also pick students earlier on and work with them longer and harder (lolz) on training for the IMO.

 where d'you think Ahmad 'n Neobeo would rank if they were in one of your courses?

[humph]

I know a couple of people from uni who've done maths, physics, or biology olympiads. Some are about my level, some are RIDICULOUSLY smart (as in they have an average of 99.75 in their uni subjects).

Countries like China dominate for a few reasons. For one, they have a lot more students to choose from, and their maths system is more advanced than ours anyway. They also pick students earlier on and work with them longer and harder (lolz) on training for the IMO.

 where d'you think Ahmad 'n Neobeo would rank if they were in one of your courses?

No idea, seeing as they're the year below me.

[periwinkle]

^^ Well, you know some of their scores: they both got 97 in UMEP and 100 and 99 respectively in Maths B, the subject which follows UMEP

[humph]

...which means they're significantly better than me

[GerrySly]

Heh yeah I just watched a documentary (Beautiful Young Minds) on the 2006 British IMO team. Some guy in the team got invited to work with the Chinese team and when they started talking about the expected level of the competitors it was insane. "It's very scary because they are the best team in the world, whereas in the UK if a person'll get a bronze medal they'll probably make it into the team but here if you're not going to get a gold medal then there's no chance at all". That's insane.

[EvangelionZeta]

One of my best friends' brother is an ex-IMOian, and another friend was part of the Aus IMO team this year.  :p

[GerrySly]

One of my best friends' brother is an ex-IMOian, and another friend was part of the Aus IMO team this year.  :p

Who was it?

[appianway]

This is slightly off topic, but did anyone watch 'Battle of the Brains'? I didn't see it, but whenever I mention Science Olympiads, everyone makes reference to the television show.

I presume that quite a few people on this forum would've sat the National Qualifying Exams for Chemistry, Physics and Biology as well... has anyone been to the summer school before?

And did Ahmad and Neobeo go to IMO?

[addikaye03]

Just to let you all know, the Olympiad is based on Algebra, Geometry, Combinatorics, Number Theory. Alot of this is not covered in secondary level education.

If anyone want's to see some practice type Q for the Olympiad:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/index.php?f=151&sid=1cee15222c292fb07a98d8caee56e303

They're slightly below IMO standard. Alot of IMO Q work out really nicely though, if you know an absolute plethora of theorems and concepts, alot which extend past the core.

[EvangelionZeta]

One of my best friends' brother is an ex-IMOian, and another friend was part of the Aus IMO team this year.  :p

Who was it?

Dana Ma.  I've also met Elvey-Price one because of her.  >.>

This is slightly off topic, but did anyone watch 'Battle of the Brains'? I didn't see it, but whenever I mention Science Olympiads, everyone makes reference to the television show.

I presume that quite a few people on this forum would've sat the National Qualifying Exams for Chemistry, Physics and Biology as well... has anyone been to the summer school before?

And did Ahmad and Neobeo go to IMO?

I don't think so.

[GerrySly]

One of my best friends' brother is an ex-IMOian, and another friend was part of the Aus IMO team this year.  :p

Who was it?

Dana Ma.  I've also met Elvey-Price one because of her.  >.>

This is slightly off topic, but did anyone watch 'Battle of the Brains'? I didn't see it, but whenever I mention Science Olympiads, everyone makes reference to the television show.

I presume that quite a few people on this forum would've sat the National Qualifying Exams for Chemistry, Physics and Biology as well... has anyone been to the summer school before?

And did Ahmad and Neobeo go to IMO?

I don't think so.

Dana Ma was a girl heh

Yeah nah they didn't, here are all the Australian IMO'ers since 1981.

[humph]

One of my best friends' brother is an ex-IMOian, and another friend was part of the Aus IMO team this year.  :p

Who was it?

Dana Ma.  I've also met Elvey-Price one because of her.  >.>

This is slightly off topic, but did anyone watch 'Battle of the Brains'? I didn't see it, but whenever I mention Science Olympiads, everyone makes reference to the television show.

I presume that quite a few people on this forum would've sat the National Qualifying Exams for Chemistry, Physics and Biology as well... has anyone been to the summer school before?

And did Ahmad and Neobeo go to IMO?

I don't think so.

Dana Ma was a girl heh

Yeah nah they didn't, here are all the Australian IMO'ers since 1981.

I've done a couple of courses and research projects under Andrew Hassell, the first Aussie to win a Gold (back in 1985). Crazy smart guy.

He doesn't really seem to have aged that much, looking at that photo of him as a teenager. Only difference is a lack of hair...