IMO exams
Posted by Martin Orr on Friday, 15 July 2005 at 18:19
Yesterday and today were the two exams of the IMO. Yesterday I solved questions 1 (a surprisingly difficult geometry - question 1 is supposed to be easy) and 2 (an easy number theory). Question 2 was much easier than question 1, as is agreed by the whole UK team, our leader and most other people I have talked to. I thought I had solved question 3 (a moderate inequality) but discovered a flaw in the last 2 minutes of the exam. This was in an easy part of the question however so I should not lose too many marks. Our whole team solved question 2; Matthew also got 1, Andre and Jack also got 3, Nathan got all 3.
On today's exam the questions were at least in the right order. Question 4 was an easy number theory which I solved in under an hour, question 5 a middling-to-hard geometry which I eventually got. Question 6 was a hard combinatorics problem which again I thought I had solved only to discover it was flawed in the last few minutes. This time the flaw is much more serious. The whole team solved 4, Andre and Nathan also got 6.
-- Martin