My name is Hyo Reep Song and I was a member of New Zealand Maths Olympiad team in 2006. We represented NZ at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Slovenia in between 6th and the 20th of July 2006.
It was very tough to get in to the NZ team. I had to do September problems in 2005, to go to the Christchurch team squad selection camp which was held in January. Then after various tests and assignments I was selected for the squad, and then after competing in the Asian Pacific Maths Olympiad with 20 other countries, I finally made into the team.
We had a week camp in Auckland before we left to Europe, training hard for the competition. First we went to Heidelburg in Germany for few days, by the time we got there, we were so exhausted by the long airplane trip. It was very necessary for us to spend few days before the competition to get over jet leg and recharge our energy. It was my first time in Europe and it was truly amazing. I’ve seen more parts of the world and I indeed learned so much as well as enjoying my time over there.
Then we went to Slovenia. It only takes an hour to get there from Germany. Slovenia was quite different from Germany but it was also very beautiful. There were people from over 90 countries. All the most mathematically talented teenagers from all over the world were there. It was such an awesome event to meet other people from other countries and get to know them. The competition was very hard. We did two 4 and a half exam over two days solving 6 questions in total. 3 questions per day. I managed to get a certificate of Honourable Mention.
It was the most amazing trip in my whole entire life. During this trip I have met some truly amazing people, I have learnt a lot of thing and set my new ambitious goal to be the best mathematician in the world and also I had a great fun. I really would like to compete again in IMO and get a medal for NZ next year. I will study harder than I ever have to achieve my goal.