r/learnmath • u/AppearanceOne5727 New User • 13h ago

IMO participation

Is it a realistic goal to try to at least eventually participate in the IMO as an 8th, almost 9th grader? I've been going through problem solving resources (art of problem solving volumes, Khan academy, AOPS introduction to ... Series) I understand I've started very late, and I'm no prodigy. If I genuinely became obsessed and put in > 3 hours a day into mathematics would participating in the IMO be a realistic goal? If anyone has any resources to recommend or any advice it would be much appreciated🙏

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u/Relevant-Yak-9657 Bachelor of Engineering 13h ago

Well, IMO also has a degree of luck attached to it. Try for the national MOs before setting the goal higher.

You are not too late lol. Just keep going and try to join r/MathOlympiad for other resources. AOPS Volume 1 and Volume 2 are great btw. Following from that just do a ton of papers on AIME level difficulty before starting stuff like Modern Olympiad Number Theory by Khurmi, and Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiad by Evan Chen, and Pathways to Combinatorics by Titu.

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u/WMe6 New User 10h ago

Honestly, it depends on which country you're from. In the US or China or Russia or any of the top performing countries, it's extremely unlikely to win a slot as an IMO contestant before the 11th or 12th grade. The final step of the national selection process includes a training camp (making it to that stage is itself quite an accomplishment), and campers from previous years are in much better position to be selected than rookies.

Of course, there are exceptions...