Mahanu

draft project

Road to the Olympiad

problem by problem to nationals

Work seriously toward the national rounds of the mathematical olympiad — past problems, technique, and the long patience of proof — measuring progress in problems truly solved.

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A copy carries over only the public parts you see here — the owners' private files never leave their own vaults.

🚧 Draft — not final. This page was auto-generated as day-one scaffolding for the project and still needs a human pass before it reads as finished. The blanks and placeholders below are intentional — someone who runs this project should fill them in and delete this notice.

Problem log

The heart of the project: every attempt recorded, honestly. The most valuable column is the last one — what the solution knew that we didn't — because olympiad progress is really a collection of ideas, and this is where they get named and kept.

The ladder

IOQM → RMO → INMO (fill in this year's dates once the calendar is out.)

Rules

  • Two past-paper problems a week, full write-ups.
  • No peeking before the hour is up — a problem seen too early is a problem wasted.
  • Watch the collected walkthroughs after attempting, never before.

Log

P001 · 2026-07-21 · (source, e.g. RMO 20xx Q2) · topic: _____

  • Time spent: ___ · Got it? ☐ solved ☐ partial ☐ stuck
  • My approach: (what I actually tried)
  • The idea I was missing: (the key move — "add and subtract the same term", "count it two ways", "extend the line") — this is the real takeaway
  • Add to the toolkit: (the reusable trick, filed for next time)

Toolkit (grows one problem at a time)

  • (e.g. Pigeonhole; invariants; symmetry; extremal principle — each with the problem where it first bit)