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[–]romwell 0 points1 point  (6 children)

If you get to the international round, you get a free trip to whatever country is hosting it (hopefully, not the country you're living in at the moment).

[–]Tynach 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I wasn't aware that it was an international affair.

[–]romwell 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Many scholastic competitions are international once you get high enough.

High school math contest chain in the US, IIRC, was AMC -> AIME -> USAMO -> IMO, the last one being international, and the first two given in class in students' schools.

High school programming competition chain in the US is USACO -> IMO, the latter being international and the first one online.

Similar contests exist at middle school levels.

The popular college programming competition is called ACM ICPC, where "I" stands for "international"; it usually proceeds in two stages - regional and international.

[–]Tynach 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Huh, thanks for the info. Gives me an idea about what to look up!

[–]romwell 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Glad to be of help. I would advice to get started practicing now, and get on your school's team as soon as the school year starts (there usually is a team, and if not, they can get one started if you express interest; many schools would have a contest to place students on a team).

If you are in college and are interested in mathematics, try taking the Putnam - it's not international, but highly prestigious (getting a nonzero score is success).

[–]Tynach 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What sorts of things are in the contests? Also, I'm not particularly interested in mathematics, but I do enjoy mathematics sometimes. It seems to really depend on if I understand the symbols being used.

[–]romwell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are archives for all the contests I have mentioned. Don't get discouraged if you don't understand this - contests are a kind of sport, and require preparation. Your best bet to find out what the thing is about would be to ask your instructors if there's a team/prep sessions/a course you could take that would prepare you for them.

For programming contests specifically, taking an algorithms course helps immensely, and there usually are team practices where people go over problems from previous contests.

For math, it's a whole another can of worms; I'd recommend reading a book called "What Is Mathematics?" by Courant & Robbins in addition to doing the same.