Timeline for Does the International Math Olympiad help research mathematics?
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8 events
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| Apr 10, 2017 at 11:08 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | @David: "Moreover, you arrive at university with a larger math background and understanding, struggle less with the material..." seemed to me to be a statement about undergrad. I'm just cautioning against deducing causation from correlation, since even if IMO gave no benefit whatever, it would still be the focus of the kind of activity that can give benefit. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 15:27 | comment | added | David Richerby | @YemonChoi This whole answer is a justification of the claim that Olympiads help with research! Steve made a claim to the contrary with, IMO (*baddum-tsh!*), very poor justification so I called him out on it. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 15:11 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | @DavidRicherby I think there is a greater burden of proof on those claiming that Olympiads help with research rather than being symptopm-not-cause as Steve Jessop suggests. You're welcome to email me if you want particular discussion but some indication of my POV is mccaughan.org.uk/g/personal/maths.html (Disclaimer: I did some pre-BMO competitions but did not put myself forward for the selection competition to BMO, let alone IMO) | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 12:00 | comment | added | David Richerby | @SteveJessop I'm not sure what your basis is for saying that insights from the Olympiad wouldn't help with mathematics research, since you didn't do that. Research in any field is very different from studying it at undergraduate level, so "it didn't help me as an undergrad" doesn't let you conclude "it wouldn't help a researcher, either." | |
| Mar 14, 2017 at 15:00 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | @SteveJessop 1. I agree with you on the cause/effect relationship, and this is certainly one of the reasons why quantifying the influence of math Olympiads is difficult. 2. At least in the way we structure the competitions in Italy, there is a big step in the amount of study and theory needed to compete at the national and international level. I believe that the preparation that may mostly affect positively your future research career is the one for international competitions. | |
| Mar 14, 2017 at 14:10 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | I took part in the B(ritish)MO but didn't make the IMO. I don't think the insights gained from the BMO really helped with undergraduate mathematics, let alone research (which I didn't do), but of course the level I was at, my total preparation and retrospective would be best expressed in hours rather than days. But having the sort of interests that lead to me trying the BMO in the first place certainly did make undergrad easier. To some quite large extent, participating in these competitions is a symptom of being good at mathematics, not a cause of it! | |
| Mar 14, 2017 at 13:35 | history | edited | Federico Poloni | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 14, 2017 at 13:06 | history | answered | Federico Poloni | CC BY-SA 3.0 |