The Olympiad
The Mathematical Olympiad is a national mathematics competition which is organized and carried out annually by the imosuisse association. Most of the members of the association were also participants during their schooldays and now enjoy passing on their mathematical knowledge and enthusiasm.
Motivation
Mathematics is more than just a school subject to us. We all discovered mathematics as our passion in our school days and found a platform in the Mathematical Olympiad to exchange ideas with like-minded people and to explore the incredible beauty of mathematics together in a playful way.
Our primary goal now is to pass on this enthusiasm to students and to convey the joy of mathematics to them. Mathematics, as it is taught in most schools, only appeals to very few, and hardly anyone enjoys it. But mathematics is much more than that. Unlike school lessons, the Mathematical Olympiad is much more about understanding, intuition and creativity. Solving every task you encounter requires a combination of several unique ideas, something you don't have to learn by heart, something you cannot even learn by heart. You can find more about the mathematics at our Olympiad here.
Every year we offer a platform where mathematics enthusiasts from all over Switzerland can exchange ideas and compete. The Mathematical Olympiad consists of several competition rounds, numerous all-day meetings for preparation as well as a training weekend and a one-week camp for those who qualify for the final round.
Target Audience
The Mathematical Olympiad is aimed exclusively at students who are not yet 20 years old and have not begun their studies. The exact conditions for participation can be found here. No previous knowledge is expected and we encourage all those interested to participate, no matter how good they are at regular school mathematics. The topics covered at the Mathematical Olympiad differ very much from the school curriculum, with the emphasis on logical thinking, creative problem solving and reasoning. No matter whether you are totally enthusiastic about mathematics or just want to get to know another side of mathematics, everyone is welcome.
The Mathematical Olympiad also serves as the official selection process for the Swiss delegations at the International Mathematical Olympiad IMO, the Central European Mathematical Olympiad MEMO and the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad EGMO. These events are a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with young people from all over the world and discover new countries and cultures.
The association imosuisse
The imosuisse association was founded in 1991. Its original task was simply to select the team that would represent Switzerland at the International Mathematical Olympiad each year. Due to ever increasing demand, the Mathematical Olympiad was established in 2004 as an independent national competition, whose winners then compete for places at international events in the selection round.
In 2004, the Mathematical Olympiad also joined forces with the Olympiads in biology, chemistry, informatics and physics under the joint umbrella organisation of the Science Olympiads, which is still coordinated by the office at the University of Bern. Since then, further Olympiads in the subjects of philosophy, geography, economy, linguistics and robotics have joined the association.
Today, the imosuisse association consists almost exclusively of students who successfully participated in the Mathematical Olympiad during their school years and who now organise the annual Olympiad as volunteers. Thanks to our very familial environment, there is a smooth transition from participants to the organisation team, of which we are very proud.