what is BMO?

I read it in another thread and I didn't want to interrupt the flow.
What is this? Is it a qualification?

Reply 1

british maths olympiad...if u get a good score in senior maths challenge u qualify (top 600?)and then u have to get 18/50 or sumthing to get to round 2 (top 100). I got 9 in BMO1 but theone got 26 which is amazing, possibly top 30 in country and most of those above will be in ternational (i think around 60 of top 100 are international students).

Reply 2

john !!

ah ok
i got 77 in the senior maths one :frown:

Reply 3

lgs98jonee

i got 100...who else did bmo 1?

Reply 4

theone

A few figures:

Nearly all people have the option of taking the SMC if they want to, about 65000-70000 people take part nationwide.

The top 800(ish) are invited automatically to take BMO1, British Maths Olympiad, a very different exam to the SMC, a lot lot lot more difficult. Of the 800 that take this, the top 100 are awarded prizes. Of these, the top 75-ish qualify by right to take BMO2, another 25 are chosen based on other factors (primarilly age and score relative to age). In late feb, these 100 take the BMO2, a yet harder paper in bmo1 style. Using BMO2 scores and other information, 20 students are chosen to attend a training course, normally the top 10-12 scorers and 8-10 younger pupils, the point of which being to choose a team of 6 for the International Maths Olympiad.

As you can see there is no set score you need to achieve to qualify for one round, it is dependant on how everyone else performs. This year, I think the SMC cut-off was 96 or 98 for BMO1, and the BMO1 prizewinners cut-off was 21.

Reply 5

androidkiller

I got 115 (I think) in the SMC but completely screwed up the olympiad paper - I didn't have the faintest idea how to do it! So much stuff higher than A-level.

Evil!

My score for BMO1 has not arrived yet, but it's guaraneed to be a FAIL!

Speaking of this, anyone do any of the other olympiads? i did Physics the past 2 years and got Bronze I and just did the Chemistry one last week - I messed up on the half-equations and had no idea for the Agent Orange question, but then even my Chem teacher thought that question was OTT.