New Zealand Maths Olympiad Committee online

Today we co-ordinated the results of two problems, and rescheduled meetings for two others until tomorrow, after agreeing on the marks for three out of six students at each one. The rescheduled appointments were not entirely due to our being recalcitrant – we were admitted ten minutes late to each one, and ran out of time before we’d had a chance to look at all six scripts. And in each case we blame a large country across the Pacific: they went ten minutes over on problem one (in spite of which, the co-ordinators cut us off on the half hour!), and then must have left question two without checking in with the gatekeepers (as they would have done on question one, had we not stopped them!), who consequently thought the LCAP was still inside. Grumble grumble! Well, we can’t put all the blame on them, as rescheduling appointments seems very common this year, especially on problem one: in many cases the co-ordinators are insisting on going through solutions line by line. Earlier today the French leader told me he had eleven scripts that had been rescheduled.

Taking into account the points that have been agreed on but not yet signed off, we have a total of 41 points for the day, including five perfect scores spread between four students. Tomorrow we’re scheduled to co-ordinate problems four and six, as well as complete co-ordination for problems one and two. Our friends the Dutch have completed co-ordination of five problems, for a total of 52 so far, with a perfect 42 on problem one. They just have problem four left to co-ordinate tomorrow.

Problem six is usually the hardest problem on the IMO (although this year problem three may be giving it a run for its money), and we won’t be getting any points there: between them the team turned in just two words. But problems one and four are the two “easy” problems, and we expect some more points on them, as do the Dutch, on problem four. I’ll keep you posted!

Leaders and deputies waiting to enter the co-ordination hall.

Checking the co-ordination schedule.

Birgit and Sietske (NLD) preparing for co-ordination...

...and checking the scores posted to date. As scores for each country are confirmed they are displayed, with the score of one student per question, and one question per student, omitted to obfuscate potential medal cut-offs.