Sophie Xu: EGMO 2026 Report

Pre-EGMO

The unofficial EGMO kicked off with 2 days of training on the Friday and Saturday before we left. Friday night was filled with fun and laughter at a restaurant near Westlake Girls’ High School with delicious fries, with us eventually moving into the school for a problem session. Fries rating: 9.5/10. Then came mock 1 on Saturday, where I decided to make 4 typos in around 6 lines of angle chasing. The afternoon was spent making mark schemes and suffering through marking incomprehensible angle chases. Moreover, my name is now NZL4, again.

April 5th-6th: The trip

More than 30 hours of travel was not easy but definitely filled with highlights such as:

1. Reuniting with Kauchy the Kiwi! Our mascot.
2. Window shopping all the stores in Shanghai
3. The pilot saying ‘We will depart in 6 to 7 minutes’
4. 8/10 MacDonald’s fries 10/10 sauce

Fortunately, we landed safely in Bordeaux, France at midnight.

April 7th-8th: Unjetlagging

Arriving in France, we had a few tastes of their culture. Such as eating snails(to gain Turbo powers!) and having bread from its famous french bakeries. Side note: Pain au chocolat is called chocolatine. The day 2 mock also happened during these two days, going rather unsuccessfully for all of us. The same mark scheme and peer marking occurred and we managed to rig the mark scheme so that all of us would have a non-zero score. Additionally, we made good friends with the Australian team, but unfortunately there were disputes about the pronunciation of several words. 9/10 day 1 fries. 8/10 day 2 fries.

Day 1&2: Arrival day and opening ceremony

This was the day where EGMO officially began. We met our guide, Duncan, who made our time in Bordeaux unforgettable, in several ways. Many rounds of avalon were played and the Australian tradition of koalaing continued. The following day started with a treasure hunt around Bordeaux. Most of the clues involved some maths, which all 4 of us could not do. For example, 9 - 4 + 1 was answered as 5 as well as not being able to count from 11 to 7. Sadly, this is the maths skill of the New Zealand EGMO team.

The opening ceremony was where we showed off our proud kiwi spirit as well as where we learnt how to cheat during the exam - stay hydrated!

Day 3: Exam 1

I enter the exam room, nervous. I prayed to Turbo and Kauchy for a good exam. When I opened up the paper and see, C-N-A. With Q3 being a functional equation. Both Bella and Isabelle had cursed this seconds ago! Also, where was the geo? Didn’t most leaders want double geo? I got stuck into question 1, eventually fakesolving it at least 3 times, which according to Brena, put together would make a real solution. Eventually, I stumbled across an argument that worked. The whole problem took me around 4 hours, leaving me little time to try the other problems. With this being said, shout out to Brena and Josie for fighting for my marks on this problem and apologies for the messiness of my solution. Finally I ended up with a score of 7-0-0, having scraped no partials. In the afternoon, we went to a pottery workshop. We made faces of each other, but most of them ended up looking like potatoes.

Day 4: Exam 2

Q4 Algebra. Q5 Geometry. Q6 Number theory. Not a dope combination.

I struggled on Q4 for almost all of the exam, sparing 5 minutes to try the other two questions to escape the wrath of Josie. Always try all the questions! Whilst trying the problem, all I could think about was induction, strong induction, forwards backwards induction. The problem looked so inductable! Unfortunately, there were no official solutions which included induction. I felt very disappointed after this exam as I didn’t solve any questions. I was hoping I could scrape some partials but since I was too caught up with induction, I ended up with 0-0-0 :(.

Moral of the story: Try several different ways when doing problems.

Day 5 & 6: Excursions and closing ceremony

After the exams, we were given opportunities to visit stunning places. The first excursion was to Saint-Emilion, where we explored the ancient castles of the place as well as vineyards. When we toured the undergrounds of the castles, we could toss coins into a pool of water. Sadly, this is where I realised that I have no luck. The coin I tossed now rests in peace on the stone slab next to the pool of water by itself :(. At least, I made history. The second excursion was to the sand dunes of Pilat and Arcachon bay. Due to my headache of an unknown cause, I did not enjoy this excursion as much.

On both these days, we had meals sponsored by Citadel or Jane street. Being present at these events and solving puzzles gave me an insight to the top tier companies in the world. I also loved the community during these events. Girls from around the world working together on a puzzle, it felt like where I belong. Finally, came the closing ceremony and gala, where we celebrated the results of the 67 countries which participated.

Post EGMO Day 1: Passport emergency

It was time to say bye to Duncan, our guide who has: made Bella look like an Easter Island Moai statue, shoved an ice cube down my back and made many more awesome memories with us.

BOD - AMS

The flight to Amsterdam-Schipol airport was smooth, but the experience there was not. We were window shopping when our fellow teammate NZL3 realised that she had lost her passport, presumably on the plane. This meant that we had to say goodbye to NZL3 and our manager, Mrs Kim.

Moral of the story: Always check the seat pocket for belongings.

Post EGMO Day 2&3: Side quest

AMS - PVG, PVG - AKL

We had a 12 hour layover which we decided to use well, shopping in Shanghai’s malls. Back at the airport, we lost Brena. Who was embarking on her flight back to Sydney. Bella’s suitcase was also lost due to her power pack in her luggage. Always bring power packs in carry on! 8.5/10 BK fries. The rest of the journey was fairly peaceful.

To end this report, the reader has lost the game(again)

Q&A

How has attending this event demonstrated greater knowledge of available career paths in science and technology?

Through this trip, I got to explore companies which I may be interested in, in the future. Companies such as Jane Street, Citadel, QRT, Insee and schools such as the Ecole Polytechnique of France opened up my knowledge of available careers.

How has attending this event enthused or inspired you to pursue science and technology careers?

I have always wanted to pursue science or technology careers but attending this event has helped me stay open minded as to which specific career pathway I undertake.

How has attending this event and participating with like-minded students been of benefit to you?

By participating with like-minded students, I’ve learnt about maths from their perspectives, and the ways they grow the mathematical community in their country. From running competition themselves to participating in discussions, they have motivated me to extend this family of my own to more people.

Now that you have had time to reflect about your experience, what have you learnt about yourself?

Many things. I have ups and downs just like anyone else does. I can’t rely on something that seems to work to be the solution to the problem. I need to try ideas which may seem ‘too easy’. It might be the solution.

Final thoughts

Although I came back slightly disappointed, the reward of the experience was huge. The friends I made, shout out to the Aussies, the community that welcomed me, and all the support which came from it. Thank you to all the sponsors who could have made this experience possible, especially Jane Street. A special thank you to our guide, Duncan, for making this experience in Bordeaux so enjoyable. Thank you to my teammates, Bella, Isabelle and Jackie for all the laughs and tears we have shared together, you guys are truly amazing. Thank you Mrs Kim for organising this trip. A huge thank you to Josie and Brena for fighting for our marks, as well as your encouragement. And finally a thank you to my parents and brother for everything.