Initiated by Professor Roman of Romania, the first competition was held in Blaso, the ancient capital of Romania, from June 65438 to July 0959. At that time, there were 52 students from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, the former German Democratic Republic and the former Soviet Union. Each country has eight players, and the former Soviet Union sent only four. It is held once a year except 1980, which is closed for one year due to the financial difficulties of the host Mongolia. Only seven or eight countries and regions participated in the first few sessions. At first, the organization work was undertaken by several participating countries in turn. By 1980, the International Commission for Mathematics Education had set up an IMO branch, seeking IMO sponsors every year. By the time China held 3 1 in 1990, it had grown to 308 players from 54 countries and regions. By 1999, when the 40th championship is held in Romania, it will increase to 8 1 countries and regions with ***450 contestants. By 20 10, 5 1 will be held in Kazakhstan, and it will increase to 105 countries and 1200 players. The first time China sent students to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad was 1985. At that time, only two students were sent, and their grades were average. China officially sent a team of six people to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad for the first time 1986.
After more than 40 years of development, the operation of the International Mathematical Olympiad has gradually become institutionalized and standardized, and a set of established routines has been followed by previous hosts.
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Test question
IMO's test questions are not limited to the content of middle school mathematics, it contains the basic part of so-called pre-calculus mathematics, and even some calculus content. As time goes on, the test questions become more and more difficult. The difficulty of the test questions lies not in the need for a lot of profound knowledge to answer the test questions, but in the insight, creativity and mathematical wit of the essence of mathematics. Although the scope of the test questions has never been formally stipulated, it is mainly number theory, combinatorial mathematics, sequence, inequality, functional equation and geometry. In many test questions, interesting mathematical topics, including mathematics of that year, often appear, which shows the humor of mathematicians. Some topics give much broader conditions than the required conclusions, while some topics only allow you to draw a few powerful conclusions. Compared with the usual types of questions that draw appropriate conclusions from appropriate conditions, the real purpose of these questions is to test your flexibility and skills. Some topics have different styles and novel ways of thinking, which can only be solved by using certain skills. For such a topic, it is impossible for the usual way of thinking to guide the correct way of solving the problem. The solutions to some problems give us enlightenment, which is not limited to a specific skill for specific problems, but a profound mathematical way of thinking.
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Competition laws and regulations
The operation mode of the International Maritime Organization has been institutionalized, and its competition rules stipulate that:
1. The annual International Maritime Organization was held in July. The host country is held by the participating countries (or regions) in turn, and the required funds are borne by the host country. The whole activity was hosted by the host country and the examiners' committee composed of national leaders. The test questions and answers are provided by the participating countries, each country has 3 to 5 questions (or not), and the host country does not provide the test questions, but a selection committee is formed by the host country to evaluate and preliminarily select the test questions provided by each country, mainly considering whether the test questions are repeated with previous test questions, and classifying the test questions according to algebra, number theory, geometry, combinatorial mathematics, combinatorial geometry, etc. , determine the difficulty of the test questions (A, B, C) and select about 30 questions.
2. Each team will organize a team with no more than 8 players, including no more than 6 players (students from middle schools or schools at the same level), and the team leader and deputy team leader are 1 person respectively.
3. The official languages of IMO are English, German, Russian and French, and participating countries need about 26 languages. At that time, the team leaders will translate the test papers into the national language and be approved by the Coordination Committee. The examination papers are reviewed by the leaders and deputy leaders of various countries, and then negotiated with the Coordination Committee (each coordinator is responsible for marking a test question). If there are differences, the examiners' committee will arbitrate, and the negotiation will be conducted in a trusting and friendly atmosphere.
4.IMO winners account for half of the participants. When awarding prizes, the winners of the first, second and third prizes are judged by scores, and the ratio is generally 1: 2: 3. In addition, the examiner's committee can also award special prizes to students who have made very beautiful (simple and ingenious ideas and originality) or mathematically meaningful answers on a certain test question, and few people have won special prizes. At the same time, in order to avoid the interruption of 1980, IMO set up a special Committee (some translated as the venue Committee) to determine the host of each session. According to IMO regulations, the host of each session must send an invitation to all the participating countries in the previous session, and the new participating countries must show their willingness to participate in the competition to the host, and then the host will send an invitation.
1988 In the 29th session, IMO set up an honorary prize for the first time at the suggestion of Hong Kong, and awarded it to those players who got full marks in at least one question although they didn't win gold, silver or bronze medals. This move greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of all participating countries and contestants.
The spirit of IMO is the Olympic spirit: "The important thing is not to win, but to participate."
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check
Generally, six questions are selected from the pre-selected topics provided by the participating countries in each competition. The exam is divided into two days, and three questions are done for four and a half hours every day, with 7 points for each question and a full score of 42 points. Participants do their own problems, only giving individual achievements and rewards, and there is no team award. Accordingly, since the 24th 1983, although it is customary for each team (6 players) to calculate the total score of each team and rank the participating countries (because each team has the same number of participants). However, the organizing committee does not award prizes to team winners, because IMO is only an individual competition, not a team competition.