Competitions  » OLYMPIAD (RMO, INMO, IMO)

What is Maths Olympiad ??

The erstwhile NBHM (National Board of higher Mathematics) took the initiative to support the mathematical talent among high school student in the country. Hence the foundation of the Maths Olympiad was laid in the year 1986 by NBHM. Exhibiting immense courage and commitment NBHM took over the responsibility for selecting and training the Indian team for participation in the International Maths olympaid every year. NBHM coordinates and support maths Olympaid all over the country with the intension to pick the best talent from every nook and corner of the country. It has been divided in 16 regions.

OLYMPIAD RMO 2011 solutions round-2 (Held on 4th dec 2011)

OLYMPIAD RMO 2011 solutions round-1 (Held on 19th sept 2011) Chandigarh region

What are the benifits of Maths Olympiad ?

1. If a student happens to clear maths Olympiad, then it gives an added advantage to the candidate in all walks of life e.g. Interviews.

2. Awards & Accolades:
At clearing RMO, students get certificate.
At clearing INMO, students get certificate invitation expenses lodging boarding in camp at Mumbai. After successful in NHBM, students will be eligible for participating in IMO. Then students get International ticket stay from Ministry of HRD.
After clearing IMO, students receive gold, silver and bronze medals with a cash prize of Rs. 5000/-, Rs. 4000/- and Rs. 3000/- respectively, from NBHM during the following year at a formal ceremony at the end of training camp.

RMO,INMO,IMO Online Study Material

What are the stages?
Stage-I: RMO (Regional Mathematics Olympiad), is the first step in selecting the Indian Team for IMO.
Eligibility: It is meant primarily for students of Class IX--XII. As special cases, exceptionally talented students from Class VIII may be allowed to appear at the discretion of the Regional Coordinator.
Day of Examination: First Sunday of December.
Time duration: 3 hours containing 6-7 subjective problems.

Stage-II: INMO (Indian National Mathematics Olympiad)
Eligibility: Only students selected on the basis of RMO from different regions are eligible to appear for INMO
Day of Examination: First Sunday of February.
Time duration: 4 hours.

Stage-III: IMOTC (International Mathematics Olympiad Training Camp)
Eligibility: The top 30-35 performers in INMO receive a certificate of merit. They are invited to a month long training camp (junior batch) conducted in May-June. In addition, INMO awardees of the previous year that have satisfactorily gone through postal tuition throughout the year are invited again for a second round of training (senior batch).

Stage-IV: IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad):
Eligibility: The team selected at the end of the camp, a "leader" and a "deputy leader," represent India at the IMO in a different member country of IMO each year.
Month of Examination: July.
IMO consists of two written tests held on two days with a gap of at least one day.
Time duration: Each test is of 4½ hours duration.

How to apply?
There is no application form. Apply on plain paper giving
Name (In block letters): _______________________________________________
Mailing Address with Phone number: _____________________________________
& e-mail address (if any),: _____________________________________________
Class: ______________________________________________________________
Name of the school:___________________________________________________
Postal Address of the School:___________________________________________
Centre name:_________________________________________________________

Note:  RMO awardees of any earlier year do not need any recommendation.
But other students should attach a recommendation letter from the school authorities (Principal/Math teacher) to the following effect:
For students of Class VIII: The candidate is one of the best in his school has seen in last five years.
For students of higher classes: The candidate is among the top 10% of his/her class".

RMO,INMO,IMO Online Study Material

Fee Structure:
The fee for individual applicants is Rs. 100/-, which includes postage. The amount should be sent as a DD drawn on any nationalized bank in favour of your regional coordinator. Individual applications should be accompanied by a self-addressed unstamped 12" × 6" envelope.

Suggestion: It is preferable that all applicants from the same school send their applications together through the school, with a single DD. Please attach a typed list of all applicants for speedier processing. In this case, the fee per candidate is Rs. 85/-.

Applications should be addressed to the respective regional coordinator. The list of regional coordinators can be downloaded from official website i.e. www.hbcse.tifr.res.in

Olympiad syllabus and methodology for preparation:
For RMO
1) Geometry: 33%
2) Number Theory: 16%
3) Algebra: 17%
4) Combinatorics : 17%
5) Functional equations: 17%
Student should go through the complete NCERT books of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,10th classes for geometry and collect all the result at one place, then apply them on some good and quality problems. After that you must try unsolved problem banks and sources for them are listed below: Don’t try to jump the tougher problems by saying that you are preparing for Olympiad, instead increase the level of problem gradually. For complete details of study program, Kindly click on the following link.

Maths Olympaid Online Study Material

Reference books:
Following are the best referred books for the preparation of Maths Olympiad.
1. An Excursion in Mathematics
Editors: M. R. Modak, S.A. Katre and V.V. Acharya (Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana, Pune, 2008).
2. Problem Primer for the Olympiads
 C.R. Pranesachar, B.J. Venkatachala and C.S. Yogananda (Prism Books Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, 2008)
3. Challenge and Thrill of Pre-College mathematics
V. Krishnamurthy, C.R. Pranesachar, K.N. Ranganathan and B.J. Venkatachala (New Age International Publishers,  New Delhi - 2007).
4. Problem Solving Strategies
Arthur Engel (Springer-Verlag, Germany, 1999).
5. Functional Equations
B.J. Venkatachala (Prism Books Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, 2008).
6.  Mathematical Circles: Russian Experience
Fomin and others (University Press, Hyderabad, 2008).

Sample questions in the "Study Material"

Ques. Five points on a circle are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in clockwise order. A frog jumps in the clockwise order from one number to another as follows: 
(a) If it is at odd number it moves one place.
(b) If it is at even number it moves two places.
If the frog is initially at 5, where it will be after 2010 jumps?          [RMO-2010 Chandigarh]

Ques. A number of bacteria are placed in a glass. One second later each bacterium divides in two, the next second each of the resulting bacteria divides in two again, etc. After one minute the glass is full. When was the glass half full? 
 [If your ans is 30 sec, then its wrong]

Ques. Jack tore out several successive pages from a book. The number of the first page he tore out was 183, and it is known that the number of the last page is written with the same digits in some order. How many pages did jack tear out of the book?
[Ques is absolutely right]

Ques. A caterpillar crawls up a pole 75 inches high, starting from the ground. Each day it crawls up 5 inches, and each night it slides down 4 inches. When will it first reach the top of the pole?
[75 days is wrong ans]