Desi math wizards win big on international turf

In a remarkable feat overseas a sixmember Indian student squad has achieved its bestever performance at the International Mathematics Olympiad IMO last Sunday Held in Bath UK the competition saw the Indian team secure fourth position globally hauling four gold medals a silver medal and an honourable mentionThe squad consisted of students from Classes X to XII from across the country Kanav Talwar Class X Adhitya Mangudy Class XI Ananda Bhaduri Class XII and Rushil Mathur Class XII bagged gold medals while Arjun Gupta Class XII won the silver medal Siddharth Choppara Class XII clinched an honourable mention at the mathleticsProfessor Krishnan Sivasubramanian of IIT Bombay who served as the teamrsquos leader said ldquoThe team had been preparing for a while and had really worked hard These kids are sharp They put their all into winning this Olympiad and they got better with time This year preparation was different from the previous years The paper was quite tough too But I have observed that the harder the paper is the better the chances of winning itrdquo he remarkedSivasubramanian said the fixed syllabus and the Olympiadrsquos set pattern gave participants a defined roadmap for their preparation But there is more to competition than just individual preparations ldquoThis year the teamrsquos cohesion also contributed significantly to their success The students canrsquot talk to each other while writing the Olympiad but the friendships they build outside help with their overall stress levels They would talk and play games like puzzles and poker after math practice which helped them gel well This was not the case with every team for example the Finland team was quite individualisticrdquo added Professor SivasubramanianOne of the winners Ananda Bhaduri from Guwahati shared his experience at the Olympiad saying ldquoGoing to a new country was amazing It was nice to experience a different culture We enjoyed it even more as a team visiting places around the campus after the OlympiadrdquoBhaduri said he had started his preparations five years ago and noted that the effort paid off immensely On the preparations leading up to the Olympiad he added ldquoThe training camp in Mumbai a fortnight before the Olympiad was demanding but helpful During training we solved about 30 problems per day which may sound like less but the problems are quite difficultrdquo On occasion solving the problems would take as long as nine hours he saidThe number of problems solved and time take entirely depends on the complexity of the question said Mumbaibased PhD scholar Rijul Saini who also accompanied the students as their deputy leader ldquoThe questions are so difficult that sometimes students solve only a couple of problems per day In the Olympiad you get three problems and 45 hours These are not just any regular math problems itrsquos not about quickness but the level up to which one can thinkrdquo Saini explained He mentioned that the students had a sense of their strong performance after they wrote the paperldquoOf course when the results were announced they were absolutely thrilled Their hard work had paid offrdquo says SainiSaini who had won a silver medal at the Olympiad in 2012 reflected on the experience saying ldquoIt was memorable working with the team as everyone worked together to win We spent a lot of time together solving problems and on the day of the papers the students were relaxed and confident They went in with a smile and came out with one toordquoPrithvijit Dey of the Homi Bhabha Science Centre has been training students for the IMO for a decade but Professor Sivasubramanian credits the entire ecosystem involved including former Olympiad winners who gave pep talks and guidance to the studentsFor future contestants Bhaduri advises challenging oneself thinking deeply about problems asking questions for better understanding and most importantly having patienceKanav Talwar a Class X student from Delhi NCR manages to balance his schoolwork with Olympiad preparation ldquoI was inspired by my sister who had also participated in the Olympiad a few years ago so I started my preparations in Class IV and V Homework is a bit of a pain when you have to prepare simultaneously but I can manage thatrdquo he said The proudest moment for him was holding the Indian flag on stageThe mathletes will step out of school soon and into the ldquoreal worldrdquo but some have already decided on their future paths Unlike many Olympiad winners who pursue professional courses like BTech Talwar aspires to an academic career in mathematics Saini notes that only about 10 per cent of Olympiad winners go on to pursue academic careers in mathematics largely due to societal pressure to secure a job but also because ldquowriting a thesis is not everyonersquos ballgamerdquo