lewelma Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 So we got back from our month holiday to the USA 2 days ago, and started reading about the IMO. America won for the first time in 21 years! Beat out China! Australia came in 6th (I was pretty impressed with that). My ds was pleased to see that NZ smashed Ireland (apparently there is a rivalry because of similar size), 49th to 77th. But sadly, one of ds's friends who was hoping for a gold (having gotten a silver last year) only got an honorable mention. The exam was apparently pretty hard with a 26 out of 42 yielding a gold and an 18 yielding a bronze. So AoPS posted a link to the questions and ds has been working on them today. He was pretty pleased that he got #5 (the medium question for day 2), but disappointed that he could only set up problem #1 but not do the angle bash, and it was the easiest question on the exam with all of the NZ team earning a 7. He would like some more practice with angle bashing -- any suggestions? I was thinking about Zeitz's ACoPS, but it does not have solutions. Any other suggestions? He is going to attack 2 and 4 tomorrow, and figures there is no way he can do 3 and 6 (the hardest of each of 2 days). Is anyone else attempting the questions? At this point he has covered all the material on the IMO and needs to do focused practice before team selection Feb - April in 2016. I will be interesting to see how the WOOT goes. Anyone else's kid taking the WOOT come September? Ruth in NZ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quark Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Keep us posted on WOOT! I heard this was one of the toughest IMOs in recent years...not sure if it's true. I was looking out for NZ participants names. :) DS took a look at the questions and said one looks deceptively easy (but he didn't actually attempt it and he stressed on the word "deceptive" lol). The paper is stashed away somewhere and I don't have hopes that he will be working on the questions anytime soon. Wishing your DS the best with them! Was wondering about your US trip. Did you stop over at CA? Sorry we missed you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 We had a great trip, but my layovers in California were only 2.5 hours each way (in LA and San Fran). It was going to be big $$ to delay. :thumbdown: So hopefully next year,I can get a longer layover and meet up with you guys face to face. DS thinks he has 9 points for 3 hours of work. He will attack the day 2 easy problem and day 1 medium problem tomorrow. I think it is a 9 hour exam, so he still has time to get over the 18 point hurdle to get a bronze. Hardly anyone got problems 3 and 6. I saw a lot of 0s and 1s for most of the participants. DS is really looking forward to the WOOT. His last class ended 3 weeks ago, and he is like :toetap05: waiting for the next one. When I went into his room and saw him working on the IMO problems this morning, it sent me back 2.5 years to when the two of us struggled over the NZ camp selection problems at a dessert bar in town. Then, we were equals; but no longer. He has come a long way in a short time. Hard to believe that he will be 15 next month. How time flies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 All I noticed is the astonishing lack of girls, across the board. I don't personally care about math, stem, what have you, in any deep way, but the starkness of the results has stayed with me. Saudi Arabia had a girl on their team though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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