On Making it to IMOTC twice

by HoRI_DA_GRe8, Mar 20, 2025, 1:33 PM

POST BY ANTAREEP

Sadness 2020-2025

Ok so I made it to IMOTC .This is the second time also since I'm a 12th grader people know that qualifying was hard.

So how did I make it? People might think
  • I might have worked hard af in and out
  • Grinded every day
  • Left all amusements etc etc
And what not.

The reality is I properly grinded math only in december and before that I grinded football and barcelona, no cap.I've been more of enjoying my life after tc24 rather than work my as* off for exams.May be I've to pay for it later but I plan to work hard the upcoming months as well.
So then what led to my success? It's the mentality,you go to the centre not thinking what might happen rather think what will happen i.e. you in IMOTC.Hopefully Indian mo is a lot easier than usamo so it's not gonna be supa hard to qualify so there's a good chance for anybody making it to inmo minus quota people.The mentality I'm talking about could be more accurately explained as the same mentality Real Madrid have in UCL Knockouts and Australia has in ICC tournaments.Your mentality must be similar.You'll see how things start working out.

Finally for all my 12th grader friends who missed out,
I don't have much to say , just remember than you must've fought hard otherwise you wouldn't even make it to INMO .It was a good ride with you all so don't give up and continue.I would like to quote the legendary aopser Kayak on this context.For those who don't know kayak is the one who disproved inmo 2019 P6 in the test using vectorspaces and went to IMOTC in 12th grade.
Kayak wrote:
I precisely remember being in your shoes twice (waddling through a lot of teenage cringe I can dig up the links - 2018 (when I was in 11th grade; 12th graders were not allowed back then and I missed the cutoff by one mark), 2019 (when I was in 12th grade)). I did end up going to IMOTC though (that's a different story -- let's not digress), did my undergrad in math, and currently doing my math PhD now; so thought would throw in my two cents and what I would like to tell that version of myself.

I get what you're feeling - it sucks to not be part of that selected cohort of like-minded peers, who would obsess over doing cool math probletm for an entire frigging month. Or missing the chance of making the coveted IMO team. Or making math-sy friends. Or - let's be blunt here - getting the intellectual validation of feeling smart, that you get to be part of that "elite" cohort (which isn't really the case -- those who make it to IMOTC have an OK but not a great correlation with the "top X high schoolers in math from India"), especially if you don't have academic validations of this caliber before.

But trust me when I say it, a couple of years down the lane, it wouldn't matter really. If you want to pursue math-sy stuff (mainly talking about pure math/CS), the skillset that you built from Olympiad prep would pay dividends (and lot of people do much better when there's no exam pressure). And you would make math-sy friends in undergrad anyway (esp if you end up going to the typical top choices in India for maths -- and the entrance exams should now be a walk in the park). Many - or perhaps most - of my IMOTC friends are not doing math now anyway (most of them by choice, but for a nontrivial amount of them it's not by choice so it's not the silver bullet); and many people I know who are very good at math didn't really do that well in the Olympiads. Do not take not making to IMOTC as a blow to your self-esteem - there's a lot of noise of what happens on a particular day, and it usually evens out in the long term. And if you don't want to pursue math then it wouldn't matter even more.

Anyway do realize that not making to IMOTC is part of many failures that are inevitably going to happen in your life (not just in math/academics but in other aspects as well). Sounds cliche, but what you really can do is learn whatever you can from whatever went wrong, accept not everything is in your control, and keep trying for new opportunities.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by kamatadu, Apr 20, 2025, 7:21 PM

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man this is my favourite blog on aops

by L13832, Mar 20, 2025, 4:02 PM

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lmao $ $ $ $

by Kayak, Mar 20, 2025, 10:13 PM

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Bro this blog is really great :roll:

by Mathworld314, Mar 22, 2025, 5:57 AM

Dying due to nubness...

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  • i feel like i see a shoutout

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  • Thanks for the tips :omighty:

    by math_holmes15, Feb 26, 2025, 6:13 AM

  • Good Luck with your new series

    by SomeonecoolLovesMaths, Feb 24, 2025, 11:38 AM

  • hawsoworzz plij gibb teeps on how to attains skeels

    by L13832, Nov 25, 2024, 6:53 AM

  • E bhai hothat cs change korli ki byapar

    by HoRI_DA_GRe8, Nov 3, 2024, 8:03 PM

  • Ngl that pfp is orz

    by factcheck315, Nov 2, 2024, 9:09 PM

  • finally shouting out orz ppl in orz blog

    by Kappa_Beta_725, Oct 25, 2024, 6:13 PM

  • Omega lavil
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    :omighty:

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  • Nice :D :omighty:

    by Om245, Jan 12, 2024, 2:18 AM

  • @below We lost finals, so GG...

    by kamatadu, Nov 26, 2023, 2:43 PM

  • We won semis

    by Project_Donkey_into_M4, Nov 15, 2023, 6:05 PM

  • yess sss

    by polynomialian, Nov 3, 2023, 3:10 PM

  • We had a great camp in ISI back in February for MTRP (MATHEMATICS TALENT REWARD PROGRAM). So since the fest season of CMI and isi is near,this means the season is back again!!!.So should we post the mtrp 2023 experience?

    Comment!

    by HoRI_DA_GRe8, Nov 2, 2023, 4:27 PM

  • Saar good luck for RMO
    haw prep going btw
    Me dead non geo :skull:

    by BVKRB-, Oct 20, 2023, 2:06 PM

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