QQ: Yebum congratulations on your amazing achievement. Tell us, how does it feel to know you have reached the National Olympiad level?

Yebum C: I feel very happy that I was able to get to that level. It is something that I have really wanted for a long time now. On top of that I have met many people who were smarter than me and have shown me a new level that I can aim to reach. 

QQ: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the competition, how did you overcome them and how did you stay motivated while doing so? 

Yebum C: Motivating myself to study every day was the hardest part. Maintaining this consistent discipline to study even when I really did not want to was by far the hardest part. The method I used to stay motivated was just looking up at the goal and using it to motivate me to continue working towards it. Basically, I looked up the results and used them to motivate me. Other than that, the competition itself was very nice and I met a lot of different people there. Everyone was welcoming even though I don’t speak Swedish and everybody else did. 

QQ: What advice would you give to students aspiring to excel in mathematics competitions like this?

Yebum C: Excelling at Mathematics can be divided into 2 parts – understanding concepts and applying concepts into different problems. When understanding, it is important to know and understand the reason behind the mathematical concept. So what I recommend everybody does is whenever studying mathematics, ask yourself why this makes sense. Like why does this formula work or why does this proof work etc. Essentially, spam whys to the textbook. And learn the answers to those whys. By doing so you are creating bridges between different math concepts using proofs so it is like you are creating a network of concepts sort of like a map. Because more often than not you are expected to be able to use different concepts together into one problem so you really need to be clear on how one concept links to the other. When it comes to practice, you need to just keep pushing yourself and consistently solve more difficult questions to improve. That is the only way.  

Again the QQ congratulates Yebum C on his wonderful achievement. You have made the school proud, especially Ms Öman.