About this blog

It feels good to blog about an area of activity I've been passionate about for a long time: the Mathematics Olympiad. First, a quick look at my achievements in the Olympiads: I've represented India at the International Mathematical Olympiads in the years 2003 at Japan and 2004 at Greece. I won silver medals both times, being the top scorer from the Indian team.

Now, if you've come to this blog to collect serious information about the IMOs and the training process in India, I must warn you that this is more in the tune of my personal chronicles. Of course, it may contain a lot of information and a lot of ideas and I hope it inspires more students! But for official information, check out the Wikipedia entries on the IMO, the IMO Training Camp, and the INMO. These have all the relevant links.

For specific suggestions and names of books and websites, check out my page on Olympiad Resources which has an article on Preparing for Olympiads.

But do come back and read this blog as well! It discusses things like:

(i) How I prepared for the Olympiads: the usual issues like theory versus practice, does it conflict with JEE preparation etc. are bound to surface.
(ii) What role the Olympiads had in my decision to pursue mathematics: I am doing B.Sc. (Hons) in Mathematics and Computer Science at the Chennai Mathematical Institute. But may be that's getting a little ahead of the story!
(iii) What problem solving really means and how it relates to research. You might also like to see my What Is Research? blog in this regard.
(iv) The perils and the pains, the joys and the mundanity, of solving Olympiad problems.

So for whom is this intended? For anybody who is:

(i) Keen on Olympiads, or on preparing for them
(ii) Eager to revive his or her own memories of the wonderful days
(iii) Keen to learn about how a life in mathematics might begin

See you soon with more details!