Is it possible to go from high silver in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge to qualifying for BMO1 in a month with lots of dedicated work? It will look good for my personal statement (applying for engineering) and also will massively boost my problem solving skills along the way which I'll need for interviews. I'll be working on interview stuff anyway obviously, though.
If you only aim for "qualifying" BMO and get a reasonable prize in SMC it is not too difficult. Some hard work focused on past questions is enough because SMC questions are more similar to GCSEs than olympiads. You may focus more on practising MCQ techniques which allows you to "guess" the correct answer. Getting a prize in BMO 1 in a month from start is nearly impossible (you can see the past papers of BMO) because it tests a much wider range of knowledge.
If you only aim for "qualifying" BMO and get a reasonable prize in SMC it is not too difficult. Some hard work focused on past questions is enough because SMC questions are more similar to GCSEs than olympiads. You may focus more on practising MCQ techniques which allows you to "guess" the correct answer. Getting a prize in BMO 1 in a month from start is nearly impossible (you can see the past papers of BMO) because it tests a much wider range of knowledge.
qualifying as in 110+ roughly? been doomscrolling TSR and reddit articles for info on tips on how to qualify for BMO1 lolll