Some time ago, the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) officially announced the results: In the Mathematical Olympiad, , 26 members of the Chinese team received full scores, becoming the only ones to win full gold in this year's Mathematical Olympiad. representative team and took the absolute lead. In the Physics Olympiad , the Chinese team ranked among the top five in the world and won the first place in the International Physics Olympiad team.
The Chinese team won two major international Olympic championships, which not only demonstrated the style and spirit of " strong youth strong country", but also an important manifestation of the great improvement of our country's education.
Brief introduction · Olympiad
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International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO)
The International Mathematics Olympiad was founded in 1959 and is known as the "World Cup of Mathematics". It is held every year and is hosted by participating countries in turn. The purpose is to discover and encourage people in the world Young people with mathematical talents create conditions for scientific education exchanges between countries and enhance friendly relations between teachers and students in various countries.
The International Mathematical Olympiad is the longest-running International Science Olympiad. It is an international mathematics competition for middle school students and has great influence in the world. Very big.
The host country provides funding for the International Mathematical Olympiad, but the participating countries are responsible for their own travel expenses. Each team has a maximum of 6 middle school students, a team leader, a deputy team leader and observers. Under 20 years old, and cannot have any academic qualifications higher than a secondary school level; there is no limit to the number of times you can participate in IMO.
Starting from the 24th session (1983), the IMO test paper consists of 6 questions, each question is worth 7 points, with a full score. 42 points. The competition is held over two days, and all questions are within the scope of the recognized middle school mathematics curriculum. They are generally divided into four categories: algebra, geometry, number theory, and combinatorial mathematics. The
exam is held over two days, with 4.5 consecutive days. Hours, 3 questions.
There are two days after the competition to mark the answers. Each question will be reviewed by the team leader and deputy team leader of each country and the coordinator designated by the host country. The team leader will try to get the final score for the contestants. If they fail to reach an unanimous result, it will be handed over to the main examination committee for arbitration. The competition will award first prize (gold medal), second prize (silver medal), and third prize (bronze medal), with a ratio of roughly 1:2:3; The total number of candidates cannot exceed half of the participating students. The criteria for winning each session are related to the results of the current examination.
International Physics Olympiad (IPhO)
The International Physics Olympiad is an international physics competition for middle school students. It was founded in 1967 by Poland . Physicists from three Eastern European countries initiated the initiative. The purpose of the
competition is to enhance international exchanges in middle school physics teaching; promote the development of extracurricular activities in physics and strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation among young people from various countries; stimulate the creative ability of contestants and improve middle school students' ability to solve practical problems. According to the charter revised in 1988, this competition is held once a year and is held in each member country in turn. Each country can send five middle school students to participate. The age of the contestants must not exceed 20 years old before June 30 of the year of the competition.
The content of the competition includes four parts: optics and atoms physics, electromagnetics. The exam consists of two parts: theory and experiment, and is conducted over two days. There are 3 theoretical questions, with a total score of 30 points; 1-2 experimental questions, with a total score of 20 points. According to the points scores, the participants will be awarded gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. In addition, special awards are also awarded, such as the award for the best theoretical performance, the best experimental performance award, the best performance award for girls, etc.
A series of tasks such as scoring, award-winning grades, and winners are determined by the International Committee. The International Committee is composed of the heads of delegations from each country and the chairman designated by the host country.
What is the current situation of the domestic Olympiad?
Among my country’s Olympiads, the Mathematical Olympiad is the most prominent, and its development process has been full of twists and turns.
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introduced
The International Mathematical Olympiad originated from the Soviet Union. It was introduced to my country in the 1950s and began to imitate this type of mathematics competition model.
In 1956, the Chinese Mathematical Society instructed its affiliated branches to learn from the advanced experience of the Soviet Union and organize mathematics competitions for middle school students. Competition. Under the initiative of , Hua Luogeng, and others, the "High School Mathematics Competition" was held in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Tianjin that year. This was the beginning of China's "official mathematics Olympiad", which mainly used the textbook content. Since the Soviet Union's "Mathematics Olympiad" test questions over the years.
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has been criticized.
This Soviet-style mathematics competition was held intermittently in various provinces and cities about 20 times, and was completely terminated in 1965. Its discontinuity and termination are related to the ups and downs of Sino-Soviet relations.
Similarly, due to the above reasons, China never sent representatives to participate in the IMO organized by the Soviet Union during this period.
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Restarted
In 1978, with the approval of the State Council, the mathematics competition activities were restarted. Hua Luogeng personally presided over the unprecedented scale of the high school mathematics competition in eight provinces and cities across the country.
In addition, in 1986, in order to commemorate Hua Luogeng's contribution to our country's mathematics, China Juvenile Newspaper (now China Children's News Publishing House), China Optimization Method , Coordination Method and Economic Mathematics Research Association, CCTV Youth Center and other units jointly sponsored the Hua Luogeng Gold Cup, namely the " Hua Cup ". The competition is also the largest, most formal and most difficult competition at the primary school level in China.
The "Hope Cup" mathematics competition was founded in 1990.
... Team of coaches. At that time, the number of coaches at all levels reached about 6,500. Amateur Mathematics Olympiad schools have been established in most areas, and books and periodicals about mathematics competitions have become a hot commodity.
In 1986, a certain level of competition among primary school students had begun in society. In June 1991, the first Olympiad for primary school students held by the Chinese Mathematical Society began. The number of applicants in Sichuan alone reached 400,000, and in the end the national quota had to be limited to 200,000.
In the late 1990s, examinations for primary school students to enter junior high schools were cancelled, and students were admitted to nearby schools. Key junior high schools often have limited places, so "specialties" have become an important condition for entering key middle schools. Among students with special talents, because universities selectively admit students with Math Olympiad talents, high schools are encouraged to select students with Math Olympiad talents. This ultimately makes key junior high schools particularly favor primary school Mathematical Olympiad students.
The scores of primary school students in the Mathematical Olympiad suddenly became a hard target, and the weight of the Mathematical Olympiad suddenly increased.
During this period, some experts in the field of mathematics also stood up to express their opposition, but to no avail.
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gradually got out of control
After formally forming a team to participate in IMO in 1986, in order to allow more than 20 students who participated in the national training team to prepare for the competition with peace of mind, they were given the guarantee of going to college without taking exams. In the 1980s, the State Education Commission issued policies and regulations including mathematics, Those with good scores in high school competitions in five subjects, including chemistry and computer science, can go to college without taking exams. The relationship between recommendation and competition has been established.
Although experts in charge of the Mathematical Olympiad competition do not agree with this approach, they believe that Olympiad scores are not sufficient. It represents the academic level, but after each mathematics league, as soon as the top 50 lists in some provinces are released, universities will rush to recruit students.
At the same time, the cancellation of the primary school entrance examination has caused the training institutions in the market to attach great importance to mathematics. When it comes to subjects, a large number of Mathematical Olympiad training institutions have appeared on the market.
The rapid rise of the Olympiad School craze has not only increased the academic burden of students, but also affected the teachers' own work due to the occupation of Olympiad School courses.
In 2009, Chengdu publicly announced that it would "ban" Mathematical Olympiad education, but it had no fundamental impact on the growing trend of Mathematical Olympiads.
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Olympiad canceled
When the promotion of the Mathematical Olympiad gradually got out of control, in February 2018, the Chinese government issued a notice on "reducing extracurricular burdens for primary and secondary school students and rectifying off-campus training institutions."
Source: Chinese government official website
follows, A series of competitions such as the "Hua Cup", "Hope Cup", " Xueersi Cup", and "Zoumei Cup" were suspended.
In March 2018, the Ministry of Education issued "About the 2018 General College Enrollment Work." "Notice" pointed out that has completely canceled national college entrance examination bonus points projects such as sports talents, middle school student subject Olympiads, science and technology competitions, provincial outstanding students, and outstanding ideological and political morals.
However, it is not difficult to find that although the government has banned it. Olympiads are held in China, and Olympiad training classes still exist, and parents still ask their children to sign up to learn.
How to correctly view "learning Olympiad knowledge" has become one of the topics discussed in modern society
The competition for the championship is fierce
The Soviet Union collapsed . After that, the Chinese team dominated the IMO rankings for a long time. However, from 2015 to 2019, the American team won the IMO championship for four consecutive years. This change is surprising. This year, the Chinese team won the Olympiad with an absolute advantage. The competition is fierce. Is it normal, but are there different reasons for the changes in the championship record between the United States and China?
#1
The United States has won the IMO championship for 4 consecutive years?
Looking at the United States, before 2019, the American team won the IMO championship for 4 consecutive years.
According to the latest Pew survey, about 49% of Americans with high school education do not know . Carbon dioxide is an important cause of global temperature warming.
has been criticized for his mathematical calculation ability and his chemistry is not very good. However, such a country with "bad science" basically won the IMO championship from 2015 to 2019. Why is
like this? There are many reasons for this, and the new theory will only elaborate on the following points.
First of all, when we look through the photos of the members of the US team, we will find that Chinese account for a large proportion of the US team. Therefore, this is also jokingly called "Chinese against Chinese" by many netizens.
Picture source network
Secondly, there are fewer utilitarian entries. In the United States, although it is necessary to select from among 200,000 applicants, the vast majority of students who come to participate in Olympiad training are true "Olympic fans". After being selected into the training camp, they only have three and a half weeks of training time.
In addition, some Ivy colleges and universities in the United States have also rejected "Olympiad champions". In other words, winning the Olympiad or not has little bearing on further education.
Third, the American Mathematical Olympiad system has also formed a "feedback" mechanism. Over the years, many veteran members of the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad team have also actively participated in the question setting and training work of the Mathematical Olympiad training camps and other summer training programs: they have contributed many valuable questions and provided a wealth of targeted training materials.
#2
The secret of the Chinese team’s strong victory
As mentioned above, in both major events this year, the Chinese team won the championship in an extremely strong manner.Why was the Chinese team able to achieve such a complete victory this year? The new theory carries out analysis from three aspects: macro, meso and micro:
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Macro: Innate advantages and open-mindedness
First of all, the science foundation of our students is relatively good. In 1985, China sent two middle school students to participate in IMO for the first time. A student scored 17 points, ranked 76th, and won a bronze medal. He performed well in the first competition and dominated the IMO for a long time after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Secondly, our country has introduced stricter selection of Olympic athletes. After the Mathematical Olympiad, my country began to learn from and refer to the Soviet-style selection model: Since 1986, China has begun to organize winter camps to select IMO contestants. First, 81 students were selected from various provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to enter the winter camp. 21 outstanding students were selected from the winter camp to form the national training team, and the selection model of "winter camp-national training team-national team" was initially established.
Third, with the advancement of the times and the opening of ideas, students' own demands have been able to be heard. Attention, the government issued a call to reduce burdens and regulate off-campus training institutions. At the same time, students who are truly passionate and interested in Olympiad knowledge also have the opportunity, energy and time to show their talents and concentrate on studying their interests. subjects.
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Medium: The support of schools and parents.
To win and win the championship, it is not enough to work alone. It also requires the cooperation of the team and the support of the school and parents.
It is understood that most of this year’s Olympiad champions come from key high schools in their respective cities. For example, the Mathematics Olympiad champion Liu Jiayu and the Physics Olympiad champion Ren Yuqi are both from Changsha’s key middle schools - Yali Middle School ; the Mathematics Olympiad champions Jiang Cheng and Zhang Yiran Students come from Shanghai Key Middle School——Shanghai Middle School...
Key Middle School does have more students with outstanding achievements and high talents. Correspondingly, the school itself can also provide them with more majors and Rich resources help them pass the provincial team selection and join the provincial team.
In the provincial team, professional coaches not only provide professional training to the players, but also serve as their emotional counselors.
When contestant Liu Jiayu failed in the 36th China Mathematics Winter Camp and was greatly shocked, his coach, Teacher Shen Dong, walked with him on the school playground for three hours, comforting him, enlightening him, and encouraging him.
Parents have given the players the greatest support in their lives. Since school study + provincial team training take up a lot of energy, parents will take them to relax and release stress on their days off.
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Micro: the balance of the players themselves
These players can win the championship not only because of their enthusiasm and talent for professional knowledge, but also their own learning attitude and learning methods.
For example, classmate Liu Jiayu. He has great talent and enthusiasm for mathematics. When he was only in high school, he published papers on the Mathematics Star Network and enjoyed the process of revising the papers. Currently, Liu Jiayu has published 3 papers.
His coach also revealed that Liu Jiayu’s. The basic skills are very solid and the ability to accept new things is strong.
In his own opinion, he must focus on learning, but he cannot learn with utilitarianism. As the saying goes, "Haste makes waste." If you focus on studying, you will unknowingly turn yourself into a learning tool. If you cannot devote yourself to it, you will naturally fail to learn and fail in the exam.
In addition to outstanding performance in study, Liu Jiayu also loves sports, which is why they usually play volleyball. The main setter in practice.
Learning and life are equally important. Only by achieving a balance between your own learning and life can you better embrace the new world.
From the good news of winning this year's Olympiad, we can see that our country's efforts in education have achieved gratifying results. Our country’s education has gradually been able to cultivate outstanding talents with comprehensive development that meet global standards. I believe that as our country’s education reform continues to advance, more valuable talents will continue to be contributed to the world!
