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> high school/early university maths problems should not have been a stretch at all for it This is a ridiculous understatement of the difficulty of getting gol

> high school/early university maths problems should not have been a stretch at all for it This is a ridiculous understatement of the difficulty of getting gold at the IMO.

ktallett 1y ago
[flagged]
- gametorch 1y ago
  Okay, let's see you try any one of the past IMOs and show us your score. It's really hard. See my other comment. I was voted the best at math in my entire high school by my teachers, completed the first two years of college classes while still in high school. I've tried IMO problems for fun. I'm very happy if I get one right. I'd be infinitely satisfied to score a perfect on 3 out of 6 problems and that's nowhere near gold.
- Davidzheng 1y ago
  You'd be surprised at how much math the people who actually get IMO gold know...
- Jcampuzano2 1y ago
  There are entire fields of math with exceptional people trying to solve impossibly hard problems that utilize quite literally 0 calculus. Many of them are also questions that eventually end up with proofs or solutions that only require very high level understanding of basic principles. But when I say very high I mean like impossibly high for the average person and ability to combine simple concepts to solve complex problems. I'd wager the majority of Math graduates from universities would struggle to answer most IMO questions.
- oytis 1y ago
  It's like saying getting a gold medal in boxing is not hard, because it doesn't involve any firearms
  - pragmatic 1y ago
    More fair comparison: Military grade killbot enters ring with boxer and proceeds to fire pneumatic hammer at boxer until KO?
    - oytis 1y ago
      So far reasoning models haven't been strong at, well, reasoning. If they are really like a killbot against a boxer now, that's pretty newsworthy
- curt15 1y ago
  Olympiad questions don't require advanced concepts except maybe some classical geometry techniques that you wouldn't normally encounter in modern research mathematics. But they're fundamentally designed as puzzles. You need to spot the tricks.
- daedrdev 1y ago
  https://www.imo-official.org/year_info.aspx?year=2025 https://www.imo-official.org/year_info.aspx?year=2025 Take a look.
- dang 1y ago
  "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." You've broken this guideline repeatedly in this thread. Can you please not do that on HN? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> high school/early university maths problems should not have been a stretch at all for it This is a ridiculous understatement of the difficulty of getting gold at the IMO.

ktallett 1y ago

[flagged]

gametorch 1y ago
Okay, let's see you try any one of the past IMOs and show us your score. It's really hard. See my other comment. I was voted the best at math in my entire high school by my teachers, completed the first two years of college classes while still in high school. I've tried IMO problems for fun. I'm very happy if I get one right. I'd be infinitely satisfied to score a perfect on 3 out of 6 problems and that's nowhere near gold.
Davidzheng 1y ago
You'd be surprised at how much math the people who actually get IMO gold know...
Jcampuzano2 1y ago
There are entire fields of math with exceptional people trying to solve impossibly hard problems that utilize quite literally 0 calculus. Many of them are also questions that eventually end up with proofs or solutions that only require very high level understanding of basic principles. But when I say very high I mean like impossibly high for the average person and ability to combine simple concepts to solve complex problems. I'd wager the majority of Math graduates from universities would struggle to answer most IMO questions.
oytis 1y ago
It's like saying getting a gold medal in boxing is not hard, because it doesn't involve any firearms
- pragmatic 1y ago
  More fair comparison: Military grade killbot enters ring with boxer and proceeds to fire pneumatic hammer at boxer until KO?
  - oytis 1y ago
    So far reasoning models haven't been strong at, well, reasoning. If they are really like a killbot against a boxer now, that's pretty newsworthy
curt15 1y ago
Olympiad questions don't require advanced concepts except maybe some classical geometry techniques that you wouldn't normally encounter in modern research mathematics. But they're fundamentally designed as puzzles. You need to spot the tricks.
daedrdev 1y ago
https://www.imo-official.org/year_info.aspx?year=2025 https://www.imo-official.org/year_info.aspx?year=2025 Take a look.
dang 1y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." You've broken this guideline repeatedly in this thread. Can you please not do that on HN? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html