Formula for math success gets boost

As a result, the level of difficulty in the Yau contest matches the level of difficulty in qualification exams for PhD candidates. Contestants are undergraduates from throughout China.

"Unlike other math competitions, this one stresses students' extension of their knowledge rather than their ability to answer questions," Guan says.

There are six areas of competition: geometry and topology; algebra, number theory and combinatorics; probability and statistics; applied and computational mathematics; analysis and partial differential equations; and mathematical physics－the last of these having just been added.

Students can sign up for one or more subjects in individual contests, and there are gold, silver and bronze medals for each subject.

In addition to individual contests, there is an individual overall award to honor students who perform well in several subjects, and a team contest.

Shiu-Yuen Cheng, president of the organizing committee, who is also a professor at Tsinghua, says that more than 3,200 students from 525 universities entered the contest, twice the number of last year, and it ran more than six months. After a written exam last month, 93 students reached the final, which consists of a written exam and oral quiz. There were 68 prizes.