My Experience at IMO 2019

The Irish team at IMO 2019

This year IMO took place in the University of Bath, UK, on July 11 to 22. It may not have been an exotic destination compared to recent years, but it a beautiful location nonetheless. 

The competition

The two 4.5 hour papers took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. All 600 contestants attempted to solve 3 questions each day in a large sports hall in the university. Day one covered algebra, geometry and combinatorics while day two’s problems were about number theory, combinatorics and geometry. You can view the problems at https://www.imo-official.org/year_info.aspx?year=2019. Ireland did relatively well this year, Tianyiwa Xie and I both received honourable mentions, for problem one and four respectively. Lucas Bachmann won Ireland’s second silver medal ever, in over thirty years of competing, which was fantastic! 

Excursion

We could choose one excursion from several options such as Stonehenge and Glastonbury. The Irish team opted to visit Oxford. After being given a brief introduction to the maths course at the university in the magnificent mathematics institute, we were lucky enough to receive a talk from Andrew Wiles, the mathematician who proved Fermat’s Last Theorem. His informative lecture covered finding solutions to equations and briefly explained some of the topics he conducts research into. I found the lecture to be both fascinating, since research maths is something I have little experience with, and quite accessible. After this the group was split up, the Irish team were taken on a tour of Mansfield College. Our tour guide was friendly and informative, while the college itself reminded me of Hogwarts. We then had free time to explore the city. It is a beautiful, historical city with spectacular buildings, but it was difficult to get an inside into the atmosphere of the town during term time since it was mainly full of tourists. Despite the awful weather, it was a great visit and very helpful for anyone considering studying maths at Oxford.

Other activities

We had a great guide, Tasos, who brought us all around Bath and the surrounding countryside.  We went to Bristol and walked across the city to see a suspension bridge with an amazing view. As a team we played card games some evenings. The opening ceremony was short and to the point, speeches were kept to the absolute minimum, with the main event being the team parade. The closing ceremony, which was held in a marquee in the university, was similar. Afterwards there was a funfair, dinner and live music.

My experience

Overall I enjoyed IMO. I really enjoyed solving problems both in training and the competition. I loved exploring Bath, it has gorgeous architecture and a rich history, and despite the heavy rain, the trip to Oxford was fantastic. The papers this year were nice and I enjoyed solving the problems. Participating in maths olympiads has really allowed me to develop my problem solving skills and mathematical passion and ability. Thank you to everyone who organised the IMO and who organises the training and enrichment classes in Ireland for making it all possible!

3,872 thoughts on “My Experience at IMO 2019”

  2. Good – I should definitely pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs and related info ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or something, site theme . a tones way for your customer to communicate. Nice task..

    Reply

  6. Hi, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, fantastic blog!

    Reply

  45. Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m going to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!

    Reply

  62. Have you ever considered publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites? I have a blog based on the same topics you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my visitors would enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e-mail.

    Reply

  80. This is really fascinating, You’re an overly professional blogger. I have joined your feed and look ahead to in quest of more of your magnificent post. Also, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks|

    Reply
  88. Pingback: sex tease and deny games

  99. There are some attention-grabbing time limits on this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There’s some validity but I’ll take maintain opinion till I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like more! Added to FeedBurner as properly

    Reply

  128. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one today.|

    Reply

  152. Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!|

    Reply

  232. You’re so cool! I do not think I’ve read through anything like this before. So good to discover someone with genuine thoughts on this topic. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This web site is something that is needed on the internet, someone with a bit of originality!|

    Reply

  243. My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different web page and thought I might check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.|

    Reply
  278. Pingback: order genuine viagra online

  318. First off I want to say superb blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was curious to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts before writing. I have had a difficult time clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out. I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are generally wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or hints? Thank you!|

    Reply

  555. Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve visited this blog before but after looking at a few of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m certainly delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back often!|

    Reply