I am a freshman and it’s currently the middle of the year. I am in Alg 2 currently. I want to get to IMO level and become one of the best. Would I have a chance? I am willing to sacrifice a lot.
If possible I also want to prepare for the USACO and be a finalist but I currently don’t have any computer science experience. Complete novice.
If you’re a freshman in Algebra 2 currently, it strikes me as unlikely you’d get to IMO unless there’s something you’re not sharing - for example, have you been doing contest math on Art of Problem Solving for several years already but just didn’t advance in school because you didn’t feel like it (or weren’t permitted by the district)?
Algebra 2 for ninth-graders is not unusual in good high schools in the USA. I’m not trying to be mean, and you can still go on to be a really strong math student, but you would probably know by 9th-grade if you were on the IMO track.
That said, it’s possible you can get to the AIME level - join your school’s math team, take problem-solving courses on AoPS, and start reading problem books.
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Any advice @hebegebe?
how to MAX my chances of at least IMO bronze as a mediocre math student? I know I am late to the game but I really want to be part of IMO and do it well! Tell me all the resources and stuff for learning math. Also how can I learn math extremely fast and well? You can be extreme with your advice as in like David Goggins type stuff. As long as I get to the goal, that is what purely matters to me.
Assuming you are serious, you need to start by working old AMC exams and studying the solutions. Also enroll for Art of Problem Solving contest math courses, starting at whatever level you are and going through without skipping even the challenge problems. Join your school’s math team and also ask the coach for suggestions.
Remember that if you aren’t already scoring well on the AMC by 9th grade, you are extremely unlikely to make it to USAMO, let alone IMO, let alone medaling. So be prepared to be happy just being a stronger mathematician.
Remember also that contest math (IMO) is one kind of doing math, and not everyone takes a shine to it. I have known some very good mathematicians (i.e. course 18 at MIT) who never liked the rushing/competition/trick aspect of contest math.
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Thanks for the advice. It really helps pave a clearer path of what to do.
I think @fretfulmother covered it very well.
Put another way, no freshman can choose to get to IMO anymore than a freshman who’s never picked up a basketball can choose to play on the NBA.
Everyone I know who’s made USAMO, and the few people I know who actually made IMO, have been involved in math competitions from an early age because it’s something they were naturally drawn to.
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There have been extraordinarily successful basketball players who didn’t play basketball as young children. A few examples: Hakeem Olajuwon started playing basketball at 15. Joel Embiid, 15. Tim Duncan, 14.
More than that, I’d hate this student to get the wrong idea that they can’t possibly excel at math because they are missing some “natural” talent or drive that might limit their math potential, and I don’t think we have near enough information to even suggest that.
The reality is that, no matter their potential for success, the vast majority of students have no reasonable access to such competitions at an early age, and/or no idea such competitions even exist.
Well, I certainly didn’t want to give that impression. To be clear, a person can certainly excel in math and even have a promising career in mathematics without having participated in math contests.
But OP asked a question very specific to math contests, and for that, there’s no substitute for exposure to both the specific knowledge expected in math competitions, and participating in the competitions themselves. And for just about anyone besides Terence Tao, that takes years.
And while I commend you on your basketball knowledge, note that Embiid (the one players I know a bit better than the others) took 5 years from picking up a basketball to making the NBA, and there were 60 spots in the draft. In comparison, there are 6 spots for the IMO team, of which about half are typically taken by previous participants, so more likely about 3 spots, and the OP has 3 years to try to make that team.
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Reminder to posters that this is not the political forum and back and forth between two users needs to move to PM.
More to the point, he’s 7ft tall and more than 1% of all the people in the world who are 7ft tall play in the NBA.
That enormous natural advantage is crucially important in basketball. An appropriate analogy for the IMO would be someone like Ramanujan who had no formal training but through sheer natural talent was able (largely inexplicably) to prove amazing mathematical theorems.
Being in algebra 2 as a freshman is demonstrating about the same intrinsic advantage for the highest levels of competition math as being a 6ft tall male (1 in 7 of the population) would do for NBA basketball.
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@ChristinaAndover, if you truly love math and competitions, then go for it! And don’t let elitist attitude of kids/families who have been doing contests since they were children get you down. Many of them may not be nearly as “naturally” talented as they think, and once you get the hang of it you may even blow by many of them. Whether you do or not, if you truly love math and competitions, it ultimately won’t matter whether you make IMO.
I’m hopeful that the OP is even asking her question in earnest. I wondered initially if it might be not in good faith, because it was simultaneous with at least one other similar post (“I’m mediocre as a freshman but I need to get into Stanford how can I do that”)
As others have said, no one is saying not to study math and work as hard as you like and follow your heart. IMO is harder to reach than a spot on the USA Olympic basketball team (never mind the NBA). So an average math student at age 14-15 is just incredibly unlikely to do that, and if they were of that caliber, they would have some independent math in their life in addition to taking Algebra 2, which, while not within reach for many students (unfortunately), is a pretty low bar for the CC community.
I love the NBA 6’ vs 7’ analogy, by the way.
As for the accusation that we realists are just hung up on our own kids, let me say that I have two kids who made AIME regularly, one of whom made USAMO twice. They went to Princeton and MIT, respectively (both got into both, along with other ‘single letter’ colleges). They’re doing great. But they weren’t at IMO caliber, not by a long shot. (And they WERE the kind of kid described above, to do tons of extra math for fun.)
My third son is “fine” at math (finished BC Calc by end of sophomore year and got his 5, went on to more advanced classes luckily available to him). But he didn’t have the interest, or the access to more math team process at his tiny school and he didn’t have the drive to do AoPS.
Rather, he LOVES acting and singing. He sings probably three hours per day, recording himself and going back over and repeating, using his guitar and piano to perfect tone and technique, etc. etc. This is a kid where you would say, “that kid has a deep interest in singing - don’t hold him back”…he’s still not getting into Julliard, let alone performing at the Met.
I think the problem is that the average person has no idea what IMO means compared to loving math and doing a lot of it. And actually, that’s almost a good thing, because as I always tell my students, there’s a tiny chance you get recruited for professional athletics, but there’s an excellent chance you could have a fulfilling career in a job that needs your science and math.
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The mod note was not a suggestion. A number of posts hidden/deleted.
CC is not a debate society. Make your point once and move on, or take it to PM.
And a reminder that CC is supposed to be welcoming and friendly, not just to the OP but other posters as well.
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