(August 2, 2024) “Apart from the Olympics of sports, a few days ago an Olympics took place in the world of Mathematics – the International Mathematical Olympiad. In this Olympiad, the students of India performed very well,” remarked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the latest episode of his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat. “Our team has given its best performance, winning four golds and one silver. Youth from more than 100 countries participate in the Olympiad, and our team was successful in ranking in the top five in the overall tally,” he said praising the young math wizards.
The six-member team that brought India laurels comprised of Aditya Mangudy Venkat Ganesh (Pune), Siddharth Chopra (Pune), Arjun Gupta (Delhi), Kanav Talwar (Greater Noida), Rushil Mathur (Mumbai), and Anando Bhaduri (Guwahati). This year the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) was held at the University of Bath. After their return from the UK, PM Modi interacted with the team on his radio show. The young winners were connected over the phone during the live broadcast of Mann Ki Baat.
The International Mathematical Olympiad is meant for high school students. The 65th edition of the competition took place between 11th and 22nd July this year. Apart from the five medals, the Indian team got an honourable mention.
India’s legacy at the International Mathematical Olympiad
This year teams from the USA, China, and South Korea finished as the top three winners. India secured a total score of 167, just one mark behind South Korea, which finished third. A total of 609 students (528 male, and 81 female) participated at the IMO 2024, representing 108 countries.
The fourth rank in 2024, marks the best performance by India at the IMO since the country’s debut in 1989, both in terms of the number of gold medals won and the rank achieved. Previously, India’s highest rank was seventh, which was achieved in both IMO 1998 and 2001.
Since 2019 (except for 2020 when the team couldn’t participate), Team India has secured at least one gold medal every year, accumulating a total of nine gold medals over this period.
Indian team member Aditya’s performance also earned him an overall ranking of fifth, marking the best performance by an individual from an Indian team ever.
Talking about his tryst with mathematics Aditya shared with the PM, “I had keen interest in math since early childhood. My teacher in standard six played a significant role in developing my interest in the subject.” While Siddharth his school mate added “I was in same class as Aditya and even I had interest in math since childhood, and the same teacher helped us hone our skills in standard six.”
Indian contingent in the UK
Before heading for the competition, the Indian team trained at the IMO Training Camp held at Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI). In UK the young math wizards were accompanied by mentors like professor Krishnan Sivasubramanian of IIT Bombay, and former IMO medallists Rijul Saini of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBSCE), and Rohan Goyal; currently a Ph D student at MIT, USA, among others.
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Apart from participating in the competition the high schoolers were thrilled to meet people from different countries and to explore the city of Bath and Oxford. “We met lots of students from other countries and it was very nice to interact and connect with them. We also got an opportunity to meet several famous mathematicians. We loved exploring the city of Bath and were even taken to Oxford University. It was a very good experience,” Siddharth shared in Mann Ki Baat.
Making friendship with mathematics
Answering Modi’s question on how to build a friendship with mathematics, Rushil remarked, “When we learn addition as kids, we are taught to carry-forward, but we are not taught why carry-forward is important. Similarly, when we learn about compound interest, we never ask where the formula for compound interest comes from. I think that maths is actually an art of thinking and problem-solving. I believe that while practising maths, if we question why we have to do things the way we are taught, and understand the reasons – it would increase our interest in the subject, as students get scared of things which they cannot understand.
Rushil looks at mathematics as a very logical subject. “It allows creative thinking, enabling students to come up with out-of-the-box solutions – a quality that comes in handy in the Maths Olympiad.”
Preparation, selection and family’s support
The students participating in the Mathematical Olympiad get four-and-a-half hours to solve a paper consisting of three long math problems. Although, on average, there is one-and-a-half hours to solve each problem, they are complex and the preparation to answer them correctly takes days.
“During the preparation phase, it takes up to three days to work on one such problem,” Arjun shared. Talking about the preparation process, he informed the PM that the team prepared for IMO by looking up problems on the internet and practising previous years’ papers. “As we worked on the problems, our speed and proficiency increased – most significantly, our problem-solving ability improved, helping us not just in mathematics but in other walks of life.”
Kanav from Greater Noida, who is now in class 11, shared that he started preparing for the Olympiad when he was in standard seven. Both he and Arjun credited their families for support. “I feel that when a member of a family is preparing for such a competition, it’s not just the struggle of the participant but the entire family,” remarked Arjun.
International Mathematical Olympiad 2024 Team
Selection for the finalists from India for the International Mathematical Olympiad is conducted in five stages by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE). Kanav shared that although he came very close to qualifying last year, he could not finally make it and was dejected. However, he felt motivated by his parents’ words – ‘that it’s the journey that is important, not the destination’. “If we love the subject and enjoy the journey, we will ultimately get success,” was the advice of his parents that kept him motivated.
Strategy of success
It was Anando’s second IMO experience, and he loved both. “Math requires patience,” he believes. “In the way we are taught maths, we are given a formula to memorise. Whether one truly understands the formula is often overlooked. Just solving problems using the formula is emphasised, so that with practice, the formula gets ingrained in memory. But what would happen if one forgets the formula in the exam? Hence students should try to understand the formula first,” was his advice to students.
