In a previous post , I shared with you the fact that Math Olympiad exams not only help students appreciate the beauty of math but also do well in school math, especially by strengthening their fundamentals and dealing well with a vast amount of math syllabus introduced in upper middle school and high school level. Preparing for Math Olympiad also helps students excel in Entrance Examinations such as IITJEE, BITSAT etc.

Having decided to participate in Math Olympiad concepts, there are several questions that comes to a student’s mind — 

In this post, I would like to answer these questions so that it gives you a clear perspective and help you plan your learning accordingly.

The most prestigious Math Olympiad contest called “International Math Olympiad”, also known as “IMO” is recognized worldwide for its quality and level of difficulty and is targeted towards students in high school level.  The term “IMO” is often used by other private organizations conducting math contests nationally and internationally. While it may be misleading for many as these private organizations use the same “IMO” terminology, preparing for these  private “IMO” contests at different grade levels will certainly help to some extent in doing well in the real “IMO” when the student gets to grade 12.

Many private organizations conducting math contests approach schools in India and organize these contests through schools. This makes it easy for such private organizations to reach as many students as possible and also make the logistics easy for them as well as to students since the participating schools will be taking care of enrolling students in bulk and handling the logistics  such as providing a center and proctoring the exams. However, this also puts a restriction that only if a school is participating in such contests can a student of that school take part in that contest. So it is important to know what math contests your school participates in so that you can appear for those  contests. However, there are few other organizations that allows you to appear as an individual. These private organization may have someone in your region to take care of the logistics or they may be offering the exams online.

Below is the descriptive table with details of various such Math Olympiad exams available for students in India to participate in. This table should also provide answers to many of the questions you may have. In case you have more questions in mind that is not answered, please share them in the post below so I can try to search for an answer to your question if possible.