<p>Alright I’m going to jump in…</p>
<p>I see that tetrahedr0n is implying that just because the US does better than India on the IMO, it is far superior than India in mathematics. Well first off, even if the very “cream of the crop” in the US is better than that of India’s, as the IMO results suggests, then that doesn’t mean that the average IIT student is more mathematically inclined than the average Caltech student persay(I’m not even going to use Harvard as an example because it is not a tech school primarily so the average IIT student would CRUSH the average Harvard student anyway). IIT draws many more applicants of far more quality than Caltech does. This maybe because IIT stresses solely on it’s entrance exam scores rather than including personal qualities, EC’s, etc. like Caltech does, but I think this just reflects badly on the American educational system more than anything else. MIT and Caltech are sadly letting the truly gifted, mathematically and scientifically, slip away from their grasp in their aspirations to find a more “interesting and well-rounded” individual.</p>
<p>My point is tetrahedr0n, that one who is truly committed to being a future Mopper/IMO’er doesn’t ahve time to partake in extracurricular activities like Caltech and MIT demand of them. Thus, they face the possibilty of rejection from these schools. However, IIT embraces all those who meet it’s stringent entrance exams cutoffs, making it a haven for purely math/science geniuses. The truth is the average IIT student would wipe the floor withe the average Caltech student in the IMO, Putnam, or whatever if there was ever a schoolwide participation of such contest administrations.</p>
<p>However, only the “cream of the crop” in MIT, Caltech, IIT, etc. are willing to partake in these math competitions, so the results are biased and they do not accurately reflect the coherent ability of any of these instititutions. hence, the IMO/Putnam are not a good measure of any institution’s mathematical aptitude.</p>
<p>Besides, brilliant mathematicians in India could care less about these trivial competitions. They want to focus on succeeding in IIT, getting a good graduate education later in the US perhaps, and then starting a multinational software company which might one day employ you tetrahedr0n.</p>
<p><a href=“http://jee.iitm.ac.in/Mmaths.php[/url]”>http://jee.iitm.ac.in/Mmaths.php</a>
Makes the AIME look kind of tame doesn’t it tetrahedr0n???</p>