USA Team Places Second, Brings Home Six Gold Medals from 52nd International Mathematical Olympiad!

Read the article here: www.maa.org/news/imo2011/results.html

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The 2011 IMO Team members:

The 6 team members and one alternate team member were picked and announced on Monday, June 13, 2011. The team members are currently attending the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln to prepare them for their international competition next month.

- Wenyu Cao, a senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts
- Benjamin Gunby, of Potomac, MD, a junior at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.
- Xiaoyu He, a junior at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Massachusetts
- Mitchell Lee, a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science/Tech in Alexandria, Virginia
- Evan O'Dorney, a senior at Venture Home School in Danville, California
- David Yang, a sophomore at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire

- Sam Zbarsky, a sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, has been named as alternate.

For more details, please visit the MAA website.

Selection for the 2012 USA
International Mathematical Olympiad Team:

Selection of the 6 team members and 2 alternates for the 2012 USA team for the International Mathematical Olympiad will be based on a combination of the following criteria:

1.  The Team Selection for the Team Selection Test (TSTST) given in the last week of 2011 Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program.  The 2012 Team Selection Test (taken in June 2011 at the MOSP in Lincoln) will be given over 3 days, with 3 Olympiad-style problems per day, in 4-1/2 hour blocks.  From the results of this TSTST we will choose 12-18 students with the highest scores for potential team membership in 2012.
2. These 12-18 students will take additional Olympiad-style tests taken in the 2011-2012 academic year, including the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad, usually administered on the first or second Monday in March.
3. Potentially an additional Olympiad-level test, given in schools, in late winter.  Details on this will be announced by January 1, so that students and schools have adequate time to schedule and prepare, including finding proctors. 
4. The 2012 USAMO score from the 41st Annual USAMO on April 24-25, 2012.
5. The Team Selection Index will be a sum of the scores from these 3 or 4 Olympiad-level tests in 2011-2012.  Some weighting may be used to adjust for differences in contest difficulty or other factors.
6. An ad hoc committee consisting of the MOSP Director/IMO Team Leader, MOSP Assistant Director/Deputy Leader, AMC Director, USAMO Subcommittee Chair, CAMC Chair and others appointed by the IMO Leader for the ad hoc committee will vote for the USA IMO Team membership based on the Team Selection Index using additional information including the 2012 AMC 12 Score, the 2012 AIME score and other indications including team spirit and demonstrated work ethic and study habits through 2011-2012 as evidenced by active participation in the steps 1-4.

Note that the 12-18 students attending 2011 MOSP and scoring the highest on the TSTST at MOSP will NOT need to qualify for the 2012 USAMO by taking the 2012 AMC 12 and 2012 AIME combination.  That is, there will be “automatic qualification” for USAMO by virtue of 12-18 TSTST high scores.  However, failure to take the AMC 12 and or AIME or a low score on either without adequate explanation will put a student at a competitive disadvantage in step 6.
These changes are made for the following reasons:

1. The current determination of the team using a TST during the first week at MOSP comes very late for purchasing air-travel tickets, planning summer family schedules, obtaining visas, and registering the team with the IMO. The new schedule allows us to determine a team by early May, allowing better scheduling for all these activities and potential cost-saving by purchasing tickets earlier.
2. The new plan will keep students at a higher level of continuous competitive preparation throughout the year, most especially in the spring leading to the USAMO.

This spreads the selection criteria over several Olympiad-level contests, so that a single day’s performance is less likely to affect a strong competitor adversely.