64th International Mathematical Olympiad

The Philippines Attains Its All-Time High Team Score in the International Mathematical Olympiad

The Philippines attained a total team score of 145 in the recently concluded International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Chiba, Japan last July 2-13, 2023. This is the best team score that the country has ever achieved since its first IMO participation in 1988. The previous record was 133, which was achieved in the 2016 edition.

The country’s all-time high team score was achieved through the performances of our contestants: Mohammad Nur Casib (19), Raphael Dylan Dalida (29), Alvann Walter Paredes Dy (18), Rickson Caleb Tan (22), Jerome Austin Te (29), and Filbert Ephraim Wu (28). The cut-off scores this year were 32 for Gold, 25 for Silver, and 18 for Bronze. Thus, Dylan, Jerome, and Ephraim won Silver Medals, while Nur, Alvann, and Rickson won Bronze Medals.

The Philippines also ranked 10th in Problem 5 in terms of team score for this specific problem. Hence, this year also marked the first time that the country made it to the top ten in either Problem 2 or 5. Problems 2 and 5 are considered the second hardest problems in the IMO’s Day 1 and 2 papers, respectively. In this year’s edition, there were 202 and 219 students who received zero points in Problems 2 and 5, respectively, highlighting the sheer difficulty of these problems.

The Philippine team was led by Leader Ms. Hazel Joy Shi of University of the Philippines Diliman (UP Diliman) and Deputy Leader Mr. Kerish Villegas of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). They were joined by trainer Mr. Russelle Guadalupe of UP Diliman, Department of Science and Technology – Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) Director Dr. Josette Biyo, and Supervising Science Research Specialist Dr. Randolf Sasota. The Team’s participation is a joint undertaking of the Mathematical Society of the Philippines and DOST-SEI.

The trainers of the contestants were Ms. Hazel Joy Shi, Mr. Kerish Villegas, Dr. Richard Eden (ADMU), Dr. Christian Paul Chan Shio (ADMU), Dr. Louie John Vallejo (UP Diliman), Mr. Carlo Francisco Adajar (University of Georgia), Mr. Russelle Guadalupe, Mr. Gari Lincoln Chua (UP Diliman), Mr. Lu Christian Ong (ADMU), Mr. Sean Anderson Ty (Harvard University), Mr. Immanuel Josiah Balete (UP Diliman), and Mr. Carl Joshua Quines (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

The IMO is the most prestigious mathematics competition for high school students and is the oldest of all the International Science Olympiads. The IMO was first held in 1959 in Romania, and has been held annually in various host countries. This year, there were 618 participating students hailing from 112 countries and territories. This makes the IMO the largest of all math competitions in terms of participating nations. Each country can only send at most six contestants, along with the Leader and Deputy Leader who will evaluate the work of contestants and coordinate their scores, and possibly some observers.

The five highest performing countries were China, the United States, South Korea, Romania, and Canada. The Philippines tied with Greece at rank 26, in the company of Hong Kong (24), Bulgaria (25), France (28), and Netherlands (29). This year’s complete results can be accessed through this link: https://www.imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2023.