International Mathematical Olympiad

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual six-problem, 42-point mathematical olympiad for pre-collegiate students and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except in 1980. About 100 countries send teams of up to six students, plus one team leader, one deputy leader, and observers.

The content ranges from precalculus problems that are extremely difficult to problems on branches of mathematics not conventionally covered at school and often not at university level either, such as projective and complex geometry, functional equations and well-grounded number theory, of which extensive knowledge of theorems is required. Calculus, though allowed in solutions, is never required, as there is a principle at play that anyone with a basic understanding of mathematics should understand the problems, even if the solutions require a great deal more knowledge. Supporters of this principle claim that this allows more universality and creates an incentive to find elegant, deceptively simple-looking problems which nevertheless require a certain level of ingenuity.

2010 International Mathematical Olympiad

The 2010 International Mathematical Olympiad was held in Astana, Kazakhstan from 2 to 14 July 2010. The highest scoring student was Zipei Nie from China with a perfect score of 42. The top performing country was China with a score of 197, followed by Russia with a score of 169.

References

List of mathematics competitions

Mathematics competitions or mathematical olympiads are competitive events where participants sit a mathematics test. These tests may require multiple choice or numeric answers, or a detailed written solution or proof.

International mathematics competitions