St Petersburg University students are winners of the International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2024

St Petersburg University students scored 325.8 points and therefore won gold in one of the most prestigious mathematical competitions in the world, beating out their competitors from Germany, Poland, Spain, France, Armenia, Singapore, and other countries. The University students were ahead of their compatriots from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Lomonosov Moscow State University, who also entered the top 10 of the competition.

The results can be found on the website of the 31st IMC 2024.

As for the individual results, as last year, the absolute winner is Maksim Turevskii, who scored 99 points out of 100. The St Petersburg University team led by Mikhail Ivanov, a doctoral student at St Petersburg University, also included Timofei Moskalenko and Matvei Isupov, students in the programme "Data Science", who are winners of the First Prize, and Roman Kuznetsov and Ivan Bakharev, students in the programme "Mathematics", who are awarded the Grand First Prize. The St Petersburg University team wins the International Mathematics Competition for University Students for the fifth time. Previously, the University students took first place in the team competitions in 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2023. In 2022, two mathematicians from St Petersburg University won the individual competition, solving all the proposed problems with the maximum score. 

'Students at our University traditionally perform well in various competitions. It was great to confirm this once again. I watched the competition "from the front row": I not only prepared and brought the team to the competition, but also checked the tasks. The works were written very well, the guys tried their best. I am proud of my students, they are great,' said Mikhail Ivanov. He added that he took part in the competition in 2020 and 2021, when it was held online, so this was the first time he attended the competition in person in Bulgaria.

As part of the competition, participants had to solve ten problems in two days. Up to ten points can be awarded for each of the problems. Bachelor’s students of any year of study under the age of 23 can participate in the mathematical competition.

According to Mikhail Ivanov, his team coped with the tasks without any special preparation. "Yet you have to understand that we have not ordinary students. Even before entering the University, they underwent serious training and participated in school Olympiads," explained the team leader. "For those who were already interested in mathematics at that age and independently studied various topics, what they are given during our lectures will be enough to participate in such competitions. Less prepared guys should pay more attention to the Olympiads, as they need to be able to write down the solution well and not lose points just for not being able to write well, and time to solve as many problems as possible in a short period of time. If you feel that you are out of shape now, it is better to solve several Olympiads from past years."