Medeali's blog

Prepare for both Maths Olympiad and Informatics Olympiad.
By Medeali, history, 16 months ago, In English

I am high school student, I love both maths olympiad and INformatics Olympiad.My dream is to go to both IMO and IOI. I still have 3 years of high school, i know some people who have gone to both of these prestigious competitions but htey have started early preparing at lesat earlier than me(by the way i am already in maths olympiad and still qualifying to rounds so my level is not the worst).I just would love to know if there are some ressources that could help me combine both, I also wanna know whether i should give up on one of them(my goal is only to be in team not gold medal or some high result) or it is still possible for me to make both of them.

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16 months ago, # |
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I guess it depends on how much time you have to train and the commitment you want to do. I started in like November 2020 doing MO, and in January 2021 doing OI. I didn't ended up going to either IMO nor IOI, but I did make it to some international Olympiads both in maths and informatics. To be fair, I had to compete against the best IMO team in Mexico history and I got super unlucky at IOI TST... but anyway, here's what worked for me and what I would've done differently:

A lot of ppl who do several science olympiads, end up having periods where they train only one olympiad, and then switching to another on an off. I think this can hurt your training, because you'll be a bit rusty if you just stop doing informatics for one or two months, even if you're still training your problem solving. If I could go back, I would start doing this earlier, and combine both trainings.

Never forget to implement and debug your solutions in informatics. Maths is completely different in this regard, and if you kinda had the idea the jury might give you full marks. Here you either get AC or you don't. I used to be lazy with my debugging and this came back to hunt me later on in my journey. Try to make a habit of stress testing and debugging your code as early as possible.

This is just a few things that come to mind, but really, you should just try to enjoy the journey. Do whatever is the most fun, and don't stress over competitions too much. Combi might be great because it's the area of olympiad maths that has the most intersection with informatics, but do whatever is the most fun. Maybe it doesn't seem so, but you can find some beautiful ideas in algebra and geometry if try the right problems. And there's also gorgeous informatics problems out there.

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16 months ago, # |
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my last chance of qualifuing to either competitions will be after 3 years. I s that good amount of time to do both especialy that i love them(This summer i have been working at least 6 hours daily either MO or OI well OI a bit more than MO except for exeption days about 15 days at max. So judging on your experience can i hope on in with such commitement or should i make the choice now. I am from Morocco by the way and our country is not the best (Not like Mexico)We barely get bronze on IMO some years and we only have two bronze in IOI in our wwhole history of participation

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    16 months ago, # ^ |
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    Don't worry about competitions and try to enjoy the journey:), don't stress too much, Just try to solve whatever problems you like and make a habit of learning from your experiences.

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    16 months ago, # ^ |
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    Morocco's whole history of participation is only since 2017? So I guess it's the results are pretty normal especially with limited ressources. My advice for you is that you focus on math given that the fact that you are in a an early stage, use Mathtraining.be (used by french speaking countries) or AOPS, meanwhile practice for time to time your coding skills but once you see urself you have a decent level you try to jump back practicing programming contest more seriously and you will improve much faster.

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      16 months ago, # ^ |
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      do you think that with time to time practice i can make IOI.I don't think so but you are right maths are important and at this level of stages my level is fine comparing to other contestants so rigth now these days i am still focused on cp without forgetting about mats

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        16 months ago, # ^ |
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        I am pretty sure that it is possible to reach IOI with 3 years of practice. However, you must practice really regularly and effectively.

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