In the 2012 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), I came across Brian Chen's (who won a gold medal) blog post on the Art of Problem Solving portal, depicting the thought process when solving the problems. "Oh my god this is so cool, " I thought. With the influence (and motivation) by some other friends I started writing blog posts in December 2013.
I started off by narrating interesting events (like the Olympiad camps and scholarship camps), and started writing about my thought process in the TOT, APMO and IMO. There were also some posts coming in series, which are:
As I became more comfortable with writing, I also tried to write posts that are more descriptive and reflect my thoughts. My topic of writing also turned from describing an event to summarizing a few events happening to me:
In 2015, I applied to 6 universities in the United States for 2016 entry (class of 2020), with the following outcome:
In general most of these essays involve my experiences in math Olympiad, but there are much more beyond that!
Honestly speaking, I have already sensed something going wrong in the 2011 pre-IMO training as teammates talked about some deep geometry theorems, with Justin saying "it's in Plane Geometry". As it turned out, the IMO 2011 itself fell short of my own expectation: to the point that I couldn't solve even the easiest question 4 on Day 2.
Notable phrases:
One hour, 30 minutes, 10 minute… I felt the heat spreading through my body with heart pounding fast, impeding my mind from finding alternative solutions.(Describing the anxiety as the time passed because I couldn't solve anything).
My paltry Honorable Mention humiliated me as the medalists ascended the stage and waved their flags proudly.(Describing my depression as my performance fell short of my expectation).
Suddenly, the solutions to some previously inscrutable problems were “unlocked” magically with my enhanced mathematical knowledge, motivating me to strive even harder.(Showing how my problem solving skills really improved without my realization).
Ethnics culture. How does Chinese / Buddhists work. But there isn't much to talk about compared to academic culture that I deeply resonate with. Thus, I chose to compare the differences between the academic environment in my high school (the competitive "kiasu" culture) and in the IMO training camp.
Notable phrases:
We exhibited augmented joy or downcast expressions with yells and screams abounding, even upon slight victory or defeat.(The extent to which we took our rankings and scores seriously in class).
Paradoxically, “kiasu” culture was not evident in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) training camps, even though the intense elimination process shaped a competitive environment.(People tend to be more generous in sharing knowledge in the training camp).
While the competition from both sides rendered shirking and complacency impossible, it was the selfless culture in the latter that enhanced my journey of learning.
There were a few kind deeds that I could force myself onto the paper (come on, how can a decent human being not helping some other individual at least once?). I chose to talk about an experience of teaching piano to a girl 5 years younger than I am, how she improved and how she started loving piano.
Notable phrases:
Every piano lesson was therefore a nightmare with profuse rebukes and hitting by the teacher, till she developed a phobia of her home piano.(A little exaggeration here, but that's how bad the situation was when I first taught her).
More heartening, however, was when she, who previously stayed away from piano, eventually tapped different musical rhythms ardently while completing her schoolwork and was eager to practice.(The tranformation done to her...TADAAA!)
Again the topic revolves around my exposure to mathematics. This time, I talked about my experiences in the Math Olympiad Training Camp. That was one of the moments I savoured the most: I was surrounded by people who shared the same passion as I did, making it possible for us to converse on a diverse scope of topics.
Some humorous interjections like “Fermat’s postulate was useless compared to Euler’s” made all discussion content ingrained more deeply in our hearts.
My diversified interaction with this mathematical community, therefore, honed my aptitude and attitude to stretch myself to the limit and reach the very horizons in mathematics.