Life update
by yugrey, Feb 20, 2018, 5:45 AM
This is my third and final year of MIT. I am graduating this year, and I am starting a PhD in math at Princeton, where I study combinatorics. In all likelihood I will work with a certain Israeli mathematician who just moved to Princeton and who is one of the two writers of a certain famous combinatorics book.
So things are great. I didn't have as good of a time at MIT as I would have liked, or honestly as I would have expected going in, but oh well. On the math contest front, I never did better than Honorable Mention on Putnam (probably I will get HM again this year), I think largely because I am not comparatively good at such fast contests. Also I am grading at MOP this summer which is exciting! I plan to propose a lot of problems to competitions as I get older.
This semester I am taking one class, as that's all I need to graduate, and focusing on research.
So things are great. I didn't have as good of a time at MIT as I would have liked, or honestly as I would have expected going in, but oh well. On the math contest front, I never did better than Honorable Mention on Putnam (probably I will get HM again this year), I think largely because I am not comparatively good at such fast contests. Also I am grading at MOP this summer which is exciting! I plan to propose a lot of problems to competitions as I get older.
This semester I am taking one class, as that's all I need to graduate, and focusing on research.
IMO gold medal
by yugrey, Jul 17, 2015, 7:04 PM
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by yugrey, Feb 1, 2018, 7:41 AM
Reason: my reason
Reason: my reason
Upcoming events and a bunch of rambling
by yugrey, Mar 23, 2015, 12:49 PM
Hmm here are some upcoming events:
12 days until April 4=Spring Break
24 days until April 16=MIT CPW
28 days until April 20=my birthday
36 days until April 28=USAMO (redemption hopefully)
So a little life update: Yeah OK I did badly on RMM, I'm sad, and now instead of being very safe IMO-wise I'm like a few epsilons behind 6th place. We can pray USAMO goes well for me. Bleh I narrowly missed the team last year and I think I've improved quite a bit but it would really suck to miss it again. OK USAMO is the only thing left now. I'm pretty sad, because I don't want to have blown it... but I guess I should just enjoy life. And if I do well on USAMO I'll make the team.
Wait darn I'm also pretty sad that I let the USA down by doing badly at RMM. I should just go win USAMO, make IMO, and get a gold on IMO, and then this feeling will go away.
Oh in the meantime I have been doing some China TST which is a pretty funny test. Like, especially when #6 ("prove there are infinitely many
such that 
is squarefree") is like the easiest problem. Also I've done some Sharygin. OK whatever happens on USAMO... well whatever happens in about 5.5-6 weeks there's going to be a post on this blog. Pray that it's a happy one. IMO sounds fun...
Lessons if I make IMO:
-Bring food, granola bars, or whatever because the food at an international competition is not always the greatest... I think 70% dark chocolate is really good to have before a contest, also because it is healthy, laden with antioxidants, delicious, and caffeinated
-DO NOT NAP.. this is NOT the best way to get over jetlag and I learned this the hard way (although IMO is nicer than RMM in this respect that it's +11 hours from EDT, which is easier than +7 because you can treat +11 as -13 and just stay up late a few days before that)
-Maybe bring a sleeping bad or a pillow because the beds there are eh and it's important to get good sleep
-Oh if #2 looks like "this is some stupid bashy problem" leave more than one hour for it, and don't just do #3 the whole time... like it might take more than an hour...
Po said that RMM was to gain international experience. I think I asked him why the US didn't send our two golds from last year, and he responded by saying that basically the point was to expose as many people to international contests before going to IMO. This sounds fun. But I'm slightly resentful that it counts for IMO selection (and only Day 1, because Day 2 is Saturday and Americans can't take it), what with some people having to be jetlagged and it being their first international trip, and with the USA internally grading and possibly changing your score. It's only one test out of five though.
OK it's important to have a moment of clarity. These competitions exist for people to get excited about math. Even if I don't make IMO it will have been great - I made so many friends that I'll be going to MIT with, practiced math, and had a lot of fun.
All right... wish me luck everyone.
Wait oops this isn't even a life update, it's a "complain about RMM" update. Wait a moment, hmm life. What is happening in life? I am a third trimester senior now, so school is really not the same anymore (I'm writing this from my history class, we're talking about D-Day). I'm doing a good amount of math olympiad practice. OK I should exercise more and I did run outside a little a few days. I should also bike. But it's so cold. It's currently like 23 or 24 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 or -5 degrees Celsius). Wow spring should actually come to the Northeast. Yeah it's been a completely brutal winter here. Heh. There's some snow on the ground now and there has been a nontrivial amount of snow on the ground CONTINUOUSLY since February (January?). It's been slow to melt. I think Thursday will be warm.
OK that's enough writing for now. I'm watching a video about the allies moving to Paris. OK, bye. I hope the next post is a happy one.
12 days until April 4=Spring Break
24 days until April 16=MIT CPW
28 days until April 20=my birthday
36 days until April 28=USAMO (redemption hopefully)
So a little life update: Yeah OK I did badly on RMM, I'm sad, and now instead of being very safe IMO-wise I'm like a few epsilons behind 6th place. We can pray USAMO goes well for me. Bleh I narrowly missed the team last year and I think I've improved quite a bit but it would really suck to miss it again. OK USAMO is the only thing left now. I'm pretty sad, because I don't want to have blown it... but I guess I should just enjoy life. And if I do well on USAMO I'll make the team.
Wait darn I'm also pretty sad that I let the USA down by doing badly at RMM. I should just go win USAMO, make IMO, and get a gold on IMO, and then this feeling will go away.
Oh in the meantime I have been doing some China TST which is a pretty funny test. Like, especially when #6 ("prove there are infinitely many
such that 
is squarefree") is like the easiest problem. Also I've done some Sharygin. OK whatever happens on USAMO... well whatever happens in about 5.5-6 weeks there's going to be a post on this blog. Pray that it's a happy one. IMO sounds fun...Lessons if I make IMO:
-Bring food, granola bars, or whatever because the food at an international competition is not always the greatest... I think 70% dark chocolate is really good to have before a contest, also because it is healthy, laden with antioxidants, delicious, and caffeinated
-DO NOT NAP.. this is NOT the best way to get over jetlag and I learned this the hard way (although IMO is nicer than RMM in this respect that it's +11 hours from EDT, which is easier than +7 because you can treat +11 as -13 and just stay up late a few days before that)
-Maybe bring a sleeping bad or a pillow because the beds there are eh and it's important to get good sleep
-Oh if #2 looks like "this is some stupid bashy problem" leave more than one hour for it, and don't just do #3 the whole time... like it might take more than an hour...
Po said that RMM was to gain international experience. I think I asked him why the US didn't send our two golds from last year, and he responded by saying that basically the point was to expose as many people to international contests before going to IMO. This sounds fun. But I'm slightly resentful that it counts for IMO selection (and only Day 1, because Day 2 is Saturday and Americans can't take it), what with some people having to be jetlagged and it being their first international trip, and with the USA internally grading and possibly changing your score. It's only one test out of five though.
OK it's important to have a moment of clarity. These competitions exist for people to get excited about math. Even if I don't make IMO it will have been great - I made so many friends that I'll be going to MIT with, practiced math, and had a lot of fun.
All right... wish me luck everyone.
Wait oops this isn't even a life update, it's a "complain about RMM" update. Wait a moment, hmm life. What is happening in life? I am a third trimester senior now, so school is really not the same anymore (I'm writing this from my history class, we're talking about D-Day). I'm doing a good amount of math olympiad practice. OK I should exercise more and I did run outside a little a few days. I should also bike. But it's so cold. It's currently like 23 or 24 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 or -5 degrees Celsius). Wow spring should actually come to the Northeast. Yeah it's been a completely brutal winter here. Heh. There's some snow on the ground now and there has been a nontrivial amount of snow on the ground CONTINUOUSLY since February (January?). It's been slow to melt. I think Thursday will be warm.
OK that's enough writing for now. I'm watching a video about the allies moving to Paris. OK, bye. I hope the next post is a happy one.
SMT Cancellation
by yugrey, Feb 13, 2015, 6:15 AM
Darn from a hotel in Palo Alto. We're scrambling to find transportation to Santa Clara on Saturday.
We flew from the East Coast for this, and found it was cancelled while we were on the plane.
We flew from the East Coast for this, and found it was cancelled while we were on the plane.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by yugrey, Feb 13, 2015, 6:17 AM
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