1e9's blog

Are top mathematicians able to solve IMO problems easily?
By 1e9, history, 8 years ago, In English

Recently I saw this question on my quora feed. This question I think is primarily for someone who have won medals in IMO or any regional mathematics olympiad. Though it is open for everyone who are good in mathematics. I know some of our fellow codeforces users who are winner of previous IMO likes of rng_58,Swistakk,Xellos,hos.lyric, etc. So their view would be quite helpful specially rng_58 has written a blog regarding very nice IMO final problem.

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8 years ago, # |
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Your link should lead to this

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8 years ago, # |
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Ah, Quora, the site that perfectly demonstrates the Age of Decadence in the West. (Protip: drinking game. Read through the site, drink a shot for every story about cheating or drugs ruining a family. I suggest having a friend call an ambulance when you pass out.) /offtopic

I never won IMO. I got bronze, almost silver. I'm not that good at IMO problems compared to e.g. IOI — even now, I wouldn't get gold at IMO. Any way you look at it, I'm not a "top mathematician"... but the answer to the titular question is obviously no. People with sufficient talent and practice with IMO problems are able to solve IMO problems easily with sufficient luck.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    "People with sufficient talent and practice..."

    What is talent?

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      Hmm... you need to use common sense to figure that out.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      I believe talent is an elitist thing. Just to know what it is, one has to have it. Sad.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Quora ain't half bad, but there are two prerequisites: follow the right people and mute the right set of topics.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Your answer is too obvious. It's always true that people with sufficient talent and practice with [enter topic here] are able to excel on them with sufficient luck.

    I think he is asking about the relation between mathematics skills and results in IMO.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      That is exactly the point. There is no secret magic recipe for success at a specific thing, it's more or less the same overplayed answer all the time.

      I think he is asking about the relation between mathematics skills and results in IMO.

      The problem is that the only decent measure of mathematics skills we have is IMO :D. I somewhat analysed the list you posted below (math success vs skills).

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Upvoted you for the first paragraph.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    I do agree with misof. Quora search is really bad, their feed sometimes does not give you the best possible content but still Quora is quiet good. Personally I enjoy reading the content from the likes of misof, robert frost(space), brian bi,Alon Amit,lebron, msg555 and lots of people who have great knowledge in subject which I am interested in. I read the story of levin regarding his friend petr and egor. So for me its enjoyable.

    In other context thanks for your input. Getting bronze is not that bad considering I was not even aware of IMO until I was in college. Plus it require an effort like you need in competitive programming.

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8 years ago, # |
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I've never done math olympiad in my lifetime, but according to this link, it seems like there is a connection.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    You probably mean this link.

    39 people, 13 of them with a gold. IMO has gone on for almost 60 years with a few hundred people participating — let's say 300 people and 20 golds per year. That means your list contains 1% of golds and even less of all participants.

    The other way around — comparing to the number of people who received awards — is more annoying to count, but I estimate that a few hundred people received awards. Let's go with 300 as a low estimate. Then, we can see that 4.3% of them had a gold and 13% participated at IMO.

    This demonstrates no strong positive or negative correlation between getting a gold (which, mind you, doesn't equal solving IMO problems easily; you'd need to ask these people to solve IMO problems now) and getting one of the medals mentioned in the list. I wouldn't go so far as to call it pure random (correlation 0), but it shows that there are many people who achieve one but not the other.

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8 years ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by 1e9 (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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