[nmca]

It’s interesting that this is a competition elite enough that several posters on a programming website don’t seem to understand what it is.

My very rough napkin math suggests that against the US reference class, imo gold is literally a one in a million talent (very roughly 20 people who make camp could get gold out of very roughly twenty million relevant high schoolers).

[skepticATX]

I’m not trying to take away from the difficulty of the competition. But I went to a relatively well regarded high school and never even heard of IMO until I met competitors during undergrad.

I think that the number of students who are even aware of the competition is way lower than the total number of students.

I mean, I don’t think I’d have been a great competitor even if I tried. But I’m pretty sure there are a lot of students that could do well if given the opportunity.

[SJC_Hacker]

Are you in the US? Have you heard of the AMC (used to be AHMSE) and the AIME? Those are the feeders to the IMO.

If your school had a math team and you were on it, would be surprised if you didn't hear of it

You may not have heard of the IMO because no one in school district, possibly even state got in. It is extremely selective (like 20 students in the entire country)

[skepticATX]

I’m in the US but this was a while back, in the south. It was a highly ranked school and ended up producing lots of PhDs, but many of the families were blue collar and so there just wasn’t any awareness of things like this.

[ajennings]

I'm curious on your response to GP's question. Have you heard of AHSME, AMC, or AIME?

Nobody mentioned them in high school (1997) until I heard of them online and got my school to participate. 30 kids took the AHSME. Only one qualified for the AIME. And nobody qualified for IMO (though I tell myself I was close).

I believe the 1 in a million number.

[skepticATX]

Never heard of those either. And I took the highest level math courses offered. The only competition I can remember is participating in is Academic Decathlon.