[foodislove]

Agreed

The Gaokao reference you make is interesting. One of the biggest complains about standardized testing in the States is that it pushes teachers to "teach to the test". The Gaokao takes that to the extreme. It's much harder than the SAT quant, but the way my cousin and her class prepped for years is literally prepping for the test.

Imagine the SAT quant prep book with its "These are they types of questions you will encounter in the test" and take that a few steps further. Wayy higher level maths and more, but not infinite, models of questions on which they prep for every day and night for years.

[nopinsight]

By extension of your statement, would solving International Math Olympiad questions only require intensive preparation and not creativity as well? (IMO topics are limited by design.)

How about writing programs to solve problems someone else has solved elsewhere (and you are not privy to the solution)?

[foodislove]

Exactly. That's how we prepped for Putnam

That writing programs to solve problems that someone else has solved elsewhere? That's called IBM Watson and Jeopardy.

[nopinsight]

Interesting. So what would be your definition and/or examples of 'creativity' in math, science, or software development?