International Mathematical Olympiad

From Free net encyclopedia

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual contest for high school students. It is the oldest of the international science olympiads.

The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. Since then it has been held every year except 1980. About 80 countries send teams of (at most) six students each (plus one team leader, one deputy leader and observers). Teams are not officially recognized - all scores are given only to individual contestants. Contestants must be under the age of 20 and must not have any post-secondary school education. Subject to these conditions, an individual may participate any number of times in the IMO.

The paper consists of six problems, with each problem being worth seven points. The total score is thus 42 points. The examination is held over two consecutive days; the contestants have four-and-a-half hours to solve three problems on each day. The problems chosen are from various areas of secondary school mathematics, broadly classifiable as geometry, number theory, algebra, and combinatorics. They require no knowledge of higher mathematics, and solutions are often short and elegant. Finding them, however, requires exceptional ingenuity and mathematical ability.

Each participating country, other than the host country, may submit suggested problems to a Problem Selection Committee provided by the host country, which reduces the submitted problems to a shortlist. The team leaders arrive at the IMO a few days in advance of the contestants and form the IMO Jury which is responsible for all the formal decisions relating to the contest, starting with selecting the six problems from the shortlist. As the leaders know the problems in advance of the contestants, they are kept strictly separated from the contestants until the second examination has finished; the contestants are accompanied to the IMO by their deputy leaders.

Each country's marks are agreed between that country's leader and deputy leader and Co-ordinators provided by the host country (the leader of the team whose country submitted the problem in the case of the marks of the host country), subject to the ultimate decision of the Jury if any disputes cannot otherwise be resolved.

Contents

[edit]

Selection process

[edit]

Australia

In Australia, selection into the IMO team is determined by the Australian Mathematics Trust and is based on the results from four exams:

  • The Australian Mathematics Olympiad
  • The Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad
  • two IMO selection exams

The Australian Mathematics Olympiad (AMO) is held annually in the second week of February. It is composed of two four-hour papers held over two consecutive days. There are four questions in each exam for a total of eight questions. Entry is by invitation only with approximately 100 candidates per year.

A month after the AMO, the Asia Pacific Mathematics Olympiad is held (APMO) and the top 25 from the AMO are invited to sit the exam. It is a four and a half hour exam with five questions.

The top 12 students from the AMO and APMO (along with another 12 or so junior students) are then invited to a ten day camp held in Sydney in the April school holidays. During this camp, two four-and-a-half hour selection exams are held, each with four questions. The top six candidates along with a reserve are then announced as part of the team based on their results in the four exams.

[edit]

Belgium

The team is bilingual. The Dutch-speaking part selects three participants during the Flanders Mathematical Olympiad. The French-speaking part selects their three participants in their Olympiade Mathématique Belge.

[edit]

Canada

Highschool students must first write the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge. Should they score high enough in the COMC, they will be invited to write the Canadian Mathematics Olympiad. The students with the top scores (conditions permitting) will make the Canadian team and travel to the location of the IMO in that year. Although the team is made up of students from all over Canada, Toronto and its suburbs have produced the most people for the team due to its high population density.

[edit]

China

In mainland China, highschool students have the annual National Highschool Mathematics Competitions, held on the second Sunday of October. A few competitors of each province with best scores, usually the top 3 to 5, will be invited to participate in the China Mathematics Olympiads. Approximately the top 20 competitors of CMO will have a training campus; and then, the 6 students with top scores will form the Chinese team.

[edit]

Colombia

In Colombia the selection and preparation of students for math competitions is organized by Olimpiadas Colombianas de Matemáticas. The process begins with the regional competitions which are held in October and November. The best students of these competitions are invited to the January Training Session. In early March the National Competition or Olimpiada Colombiana de Matemáticas begins. It consists of a sequence of four examinations: the clasificatoria, the selectiva, the semifinal and the ronda final. The latter contains a (prior) training session and then two days of IMO-style papers.

Every Colombian high school student can take part in the first "classifying" examination but afterwards students are invited to compete according to their results on the previous examination. The three best students of the three different high school levels of the final round examination are the winners of the Colombian Math Olympiad. Although in principle students of the lower levels may be selected to go to the IMO, it generally takes many years before they can compete with students of the highest level or nivel superior. After the National Competition the twenty best students of each level are invited to the June Training Session where students undergo the IMO selection process.

[edit]

Cyprus

In Cyprus Four provincial competitions are held in November in every district capital. In Lefkosia is called "Iakovos Patatsos", in Lemesos is called "Andreas Vlamis", in Larnaka and Ammochostos is called "Petrakis Kyprianou" and in Pafos is called "Andreas Hadjitheoris". Afterwards ten students from every grade (A, B and C grade) of the high-school (Lyceum) from every district are selected. Total: four districts * three grades * ten students = 120 students.

Then a National (Pancyprian) competition is held in December and is called "Zeno". Every grade has different problems. Afterwards ten students from every grade are selected. Total: three grades * ten students = 30 students. These student are divided into two groups according to the district they come from. Group A must come from Lemesos and Pafos and Group B must come from Lefkosia, Larnaka and Ammochostos.

Each group watches about eight to ten four-hour preparation lessons for the olympiad. Each group decides where the next lesson will be held. During the lessons Four Selection competitions are held which are considered the four parts of the Selection Competition under 15.5 which is called "Michael Georgallas". In each of the competition five students are eliminated. So after the fourth competition the six member of national team and the four runners-up are selected.

[edit]

Czech Republic

After succesfully completing the school and regional rounds, roughly 50 best participants are invited to the national round, where 10 best students are selected to participate in a week-long selection campus. Each day they solve a set of 3-4 problems, taken mainly from the past national olympiads of various contries. On the last day they have to find the answers (this time in form of a number) to rather large set of shorter problems under significant time-pressure. After that the team is selected and before the actual IMO, it competes in traditional Czech-Slovak-Polish Mathematical Contest where the participants can practise their skill under almost identical conditions to IMO.

[edit]

Denmark

In Denmark a national contest open to all high school students is held every year called "Georg Mohr-Konkurrencen"(the Georg Mohr contest) named after a Danish mathematician. The top 20 of this contest are then invited to another contest where the final team is selected.

[edit]

France

The Association Animath prepares and selects the French IMO team. Students who succeed at a preselection test can get from Animath a year-long training, after which the team is selected by an IMO-like test.

[edit]

Hellas

  • Θαλής (Thalis) - first round
  • Ευκλείδης (Euklidis) - second round
  • Αρχιμήδης (Archimidis) - third round
[edit]

Hong Kong

Hong Kong first joined IMO in 1988.

In Hong Kong, the International Mathematical Olympiad Preliminary Selection Contest is held every year. Students are selected to receive further training, after three phases of which six students will be selected as the Hong Kong team members, and six will be selected as reserve members. The further training is also known as phase four training.

[edit]

India

In India, the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (or INMO) is held every year. Students qualifying this examination get to attend the IMO Training Camp where further selection tests are used to identify the top six students who will represent the country. Learn more at INMO.

[edit]

Latvia

In Latvia a national contest open to all high school students takes place each year. The best participants of regional contests are allowed to participate in the national olympiad held in Riga. The top students are further tested to select the national team.

[edit]

Malaysia

The first selection round is based on the Olimpiad Matematik Kebangsaan, OMK (National Mathematical Olympiad) and around 30 candidates are selected to join two or three training camps. The final six candidates are selected from the results of several other tests and exams (including the APMO) in these training camps.

Generally, no one knows the team's exact selection criteria since the exam results in the training camps are not disclosed. However, it is known to the public that the team must consist of a certain number of Bumiputeras. There have been many cases where even the top three in the OMK were not selected as one of the trainee to represent the country.

Additionally, private school students are not allowed to participate in the International Olympiad training camps in Malaysia.

These explained why it's often that Malaysia government does not send good contestants to IMO. In fact, this is one of the reasons that Malaysia never get a desirable results in IMO, apart from the inadequate training and the uninspiring mathematical curriculum in the country.

[edit]

Portugal

In Portugal, there are four selection steps. The three first are the exams of the Portuguese Mathematics Olympiad and the last is composed of several exams made by Projecto Delfos, who also prepares the students for international competitions.

[edit]

Romania

In Romania those that enter the Romanian National Team on Mathematical Olympiad are selected from three rounds: City, County and National. A team (plus reserve) is selected from the first nine topped on the National Olympiad.

[edit]

South Africa

In South Africa those who would be members of the team must pass through a nation-wide talent search by correspondence, after which the top fifty or so will be selected for a camp at Stellenbosch University. After that they must come in the top fifteen/sixteen in some monthly problems sent out by the University of Cape Town in order to go to a final selection camp at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. A final training camp takes place at the University of Cape Town just before the IMO. The Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad is used informally as a test, along with an IMO selection test written at the schools of the top fifteen in the event of indecision.

[edit]

United Kingdom

In the UK, the number of those that enter the British Mathematical Olympiad is reduced to around 20. These then have a 'training session' that is held in Trinity College, Cambridge. A squad (team plus reserve) of around nine is selected from examinations during these sessions and a final team is selected after a further training session held at Oundle School.

[edit]

United States

In the United States, the team is selected through the American Mathematics Competitions, which are open to all high school students.

[edit]

Awards

The participants are ranked based on their individual scores.

  • Gold medals will be awarded to the top 1/12 of the contestants.
  • Silver medals will be awarded to the next 2/12.
  • Bronze medals will be awarded to the next 3/12.
  • Participants who don't win a medal but who score seven points on at least one problem get an honorable mention.

Special prizes may be awarded for solutions of outstanding elegance or involving good generalisations of a problem. This last happened in 2005, 1995 and 1988, but was more frequent up to the early 1980s.

[edit]

Current and future IMOs

[edit]

Past IMOs

Sources differ about the cities hosting some of the early IMOs. This may be partly because leaders are generally housed well away from the students, and partly because after the competition the students did not always stay based in 1 city for the rest of the IMO. The exact dates cited may also differ, because of leaders arriving before the students, and at more recent IMOs the IMO Advisory Board arriving before the leaders.

[edit]

Results for the 2005 IMO

Results by Medals for the 2005 IMO

  1. China | (five gold, one silver)
  2. USA , Russia | (four gold, two silver)
  3. Romania | (four gold, one silver, one bronze)
  4. Korea | (three gold, three silver)
  5. Taiwan | (three gold, two silver, one bronze)
  6. Japan | (three gold, one silver, two bronze)
  7. Iran | (two gold, four silver)

Results by points for the 2005 IMO

  1. China (235)
  2. United States of America (213)
  3. Russian Federation (212)
  4. Iran (201)
  5. Korea (200)
  6. Romania (191)
  7. Taiwan (190)
  8. Japan (188)
  9. Hungary, Ukraine (181)
  10. Bulgaria (173)
  11. Germany (163)
  12. United Kingdom (159)
  13. Singapore (145)
  14. Vietnam (143)
  15. Czech Republic (139)
  16. Hong Kong (138)
  17. Belarus (136)
  18. Canada (132)
  19. Slovakia (131)


[edit]

Notable achievements

  • Ciprian Manolescu from Romania managed to write a perfect paper (42/42) three times.
  • Reid Barton (USA) was the first participant to obtain a gold medal four times (1998-1999-2000-2001). Christian Reiher (Germany) is the only other participant to have won four gold medals (2000-2001-2002-2003); Reiher also obtained a bronze medal in 1999.
  • In 1994, all six members of the USA team wrote a perfect paper. This accomplishment was noted in TIME Magazine
[edit]

Sources

  • Steve Olson. Count Down. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN 0-61825141-3. Describes the IMO (based on IMO 2000) from the viewpoint of the contestants, with general background information on various related issues (such as competitiveness).
  • Tom Verhoeff. The 43rd International Mathematical Olympiad: A Reflective Report on IMO 2002. Computing Science Report 02-11, Faculty of Mathematics and Computing Science, Eindhoven University of Technology. August 2002. PDF Describes the IMO (based on IMO 2002) from the viewpoint of the leaders, with a comparison to the International Olympiad in Informatics.
[edit]

External links

es:Olimpiada Internacional de Matemáticas fr:Olympiades de mathématiques it:Olimpiadi Internazionali della Matematica hu:Nemzetközi Matematikai Diákolimpia ja:国際数学オリンピック ru:Международная математическая олимпиада sl:Mednarodna matematična olimpijada fi:Kansainväliset matematiikkaolympialaiset sv:Matematikolympiaden zh:国际数学奥林匹克竞赛

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/International_Mathematical_Olympiad"