Raising a Math Talent

by Siyu Shen, Freshman, Northwood High School, Irvine

IRVINE, Calif. - The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an awe-inspiring event. It has a long road before it. The some 250,000 students taking the AMC (American Math Competition) are weeded down to the 10,000 that advance to the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Exam), then to the top 500 scorers of both the AMC and AIME advance to the USAMO (USA Math Olympiad). Only the six top scorers of the USAMO are invited to the USA team for the IMO. These are the top six students of America who take part in an international event that has almost ninety countries spanning five continents participating. With odds this unlikely, the competition seems like an unattainable dream. Unattainable? Definitely not.

On May 3, 2008, Avid Academy for Gifted Youth presented feature documentary Hard Problems that which shows the journey of six ordinary kids with an extraordinary math as they traveled to the IMO at Concordia University.  Featured guest speaker is Mr. Orlando Leung.

Mr. Leung is the father of Tedrick Leung, a 2007 IMO team member. As Orlando spoke to his audience about his son’s path to the IMO, one message rang out among all else. Without dedication and hard work, they would have gotten no where.  The family searched everywhere for a useful math class, before finding a math circle in San Diego—two hours away from their North Hollywood home. Yet, almost every Saturday without fail, the family would set out early in the morning to get there. There is the dedication. The hard work came into play when every day Tedrick would work hours on math, spend his weekends dedicated to math, and going to the bathroom and doing math. While he did all this, he was happy.

“What was our benchmark?” Orlando asked the audience. Answers flew out—the money he spent, college, hard work. Each was a great idea, but not a single one was correct. Sure, at the end of everything, they had the MIT acceptance, the expenses, the results of hard work—but that was all in the long run. What Orlando and his wife used as a day by day standard was their son’s happiness. He was happy about doing math and he was happy to compete. And as long as he was happy, they were.

We have dedication, hard work, happiness. Those are great once you are set on the path of math. There are many people, however, who have the potential but are too scared to act on it. Orlando’s advice is this: don’t be. In math competitions, there are no losses, only wins. The competitions strengthen skill and improve brain power. Best of all, “Nobody needs to know your scores,” as Orlando said with a grin. All the pressure and nervousness of competitions comes from children needing to prove themselves to others so they can show their greatness. The only thing that truly counts, though, is that there is improvement from tries before. As long as there is, then it is a win. Trophies and medals, no matter how pretty, never match up to that.

So, the fear of competitions was braved, and a chance was taken. But then, the result is a horrible score in the event. “Disappointment is something we have to deal with in life,” stated Orlando as he shrugged. Disappointing results should not be grouped with failure. As long as the very best effort was put out, it was not a failure. In life, not everything is always going to go right. People may not achieve what they prepare for. The important part is getting back up and trying again, harder this time, to do better. That way, a win is always possible.

Aside from all of that, though, a person has to want everything—want the win, the qualification, the ability to compete. There is no use in entering if there is no push behind it. When there is enough want to fuel the dedication, the hard work, and the happiness, then success is possible. It’s no use just saying that there will be improvement next time and then let it go. The students who qualified for the IMO? They wanted it, and they wanted it badly. Every day, they practiced math, lived in math, breathed math. It was not some fun event to try; it was a goal they would get no matter what. Through their work, it became a reality.

This is only one student, you protest. Yes, Tedrick Leung is one student. Zachary Abel, Sarathustra Brady, Ryan Ko, Yi Sun, Arnav Tripathy, and Alex Zhai are six students. More specifically, they were the six team members who represented the United States in the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad. Hard Problems is a documentary about these six students and their journey to the prestigious competition. It exemplifies all that Orlando said in his presentation. For them, besides all the work it took to actually get to the competition, there was also collaboration. Math is a team sport; there is no bragging about who is better at what, who is the smartest. Everyone lends their opinion to a problem so they can get the best possible method of answering. Hard Problems has dedication, hard work, joy, and collaboration rolled into one as six American students travel to Ljubljana, Slovenia to take part in a competition with some of the best math students in the world.

Qualifying for any math competition is difficult. Getting into the IMO is extremely so. It’s always possible, though, when someone is driven enough, dedicated enough, and willing to do hard work. The road to success is hard and long. Like all else, practice is needed. The last parting word from Orlando Leung is “Practice. There is no great math person who never practiced.”