Friday, 1 July 2011

Guys or Gals: Who's better at Maths Olympiad?

This is posted by LJ's mum.

Generally speaking, guys perform much better than gals in Maths Olympiad. Some evidences are below:
- Annual International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) total participation: typically, 90% male and 10% female
- Top 10 winners of Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (SMO) - SMO Junior 2010 (9 boys, 1 girl), SMO Senior 2010 (9 boys, 1 girl), SMO Open 2010 (10 boys)
- Singapore's participation in IMO from 2006-2011: all-boys team
- Out of about 24 members in the 2010/2011 National Team, there is only 1 girl
- No girl has ever topped the SMO Junior/Senior/Open
- No girl has ever topped the following primary-level Math Olympiad competitions: NMOS/SMOPS/APMOPS/RIPWMC

Nevertheless, as in most things in life, there are exceptions. Lisa Sauermann from Germany has been one of the top winners in the IMO. To-date, she has garnered 3 Gold and 1 Silver IMO medals. She was ranked individual 4th in 2010 and 3rd in 2009.

Best of all, Lisa (age 18 this year) is taking part in IMO 2011, and she looks set to take over the throne from Christian Reiher, as the Champion in the IMO Hall of Fame. Those ranked above her in the current Hall of Fame are all past (or long past) 19 years old and are not eligible to take part in the IMO anymore.

I wonder if Lisa is taking part again next year ....

To all girls out there who aspire to shine in the Mathematical Olympiad arena: if Lisa can do it, you can do it too!
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3 comments:

  1. Peter Eberhard13 July 2011 at 23:09

    Hi!

    Lisa Sauermann will not take part in IMO 2012, as she finished school last month (unsurprisingly, with a perfect 1.0 score).

    I was her Math Olympiad tutor for one year, but that was a long time ago, in her pre-IMO days. Nowadays, it’s Christian Reiher, number one in the IMO Hall of Fame.

    We have high hopes that she will become the top IMO Hall-of-Famer this year—she “only” needs another gold medal.

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  2. LJ's mum14 July 2011 at 10:06

    Hi Peter Eberhard,

    Thanks for the comments, and the additional information provided :)

    Lisa Sauermann is really impressive!!

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  3. HalloLondon22 July 2011 at 03:24

    What is Christian Reiher doing these days? He finished his PhD in one year some time ago. What is he up to now?

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