I am preparing for the National Mathematical Olympiad next year, and I am currently in need of complete past questions. The few I have found online are terribly incomplete.

Darivie04:
I am preparing for the National Mathematical Olympiad next year, and I am currently in need of complete past questions. The few I have found online are terribly incomplete.

I doubt if you'll find any. The reason we do not do well at the Olymiads is because of the poor Mathematics culture we have down here. To do well at the Olympiads, you need good books. China is the best but owning to the fact that it's a very competitive country, their books are highly technical. Another good choice is Titu's book but, as pointed put before, his books are also technical and presupposes the reader has some level of Mathematical sophistication.

I suggest you start with Hall n Knight for Algebra, Loney for Trigonometry. Keep Todhunter close too. When you're advanced enough, you can proceed to Jiri Herman et al and then try books from Titu again.

Good luck bro. Don't forget Combinatorics, Geometry and Number Theory. Moreover, better start learning functional and polymial equations, you need them to even attempt any question at the international level.

MathsEconomics:


I doubt if you'll find any. The reason we do not do well at the Olymiads is because of the poor Mathematics culture we have down here. To do well at the Olympiads, you need good books. China is the best but owning to the fact that it's a very competitive country, their books are highly technical. Another good choice is Titu's book but, as pointed put before, his books are also technical and presupposes the reader has some level of Mathematical sophistication.

I suggest you start with Hall n Knight for Algebra, Loney for Trigonometry. Keep Todhunter close too. When you're advanced enough, you can proceed to Jiri Herman et al and then try books from Titu again.

Good luck bro. Don't forget Combinatorics, Geometry and Number Theory. Moreover, better start learning functional and polymial equations, you need them to even attempt any question at the international level.

Your reply is highly appreciated.

I've been able to gather books but online people always say the best way to prepare for math olympiads is to practice past questions.

Darivie04:

Your reply is highly appreciated.

I've been able to gather books but online people always say the best way to prepare for math olympiads is to practice past questions.

That's correct but it can as well be considered ridiculous. Olympiad Mathematics is not WAEC. You need to have a very good theoretical background in those topics before even thinking about picking the past questions. I consider past questions helpful when and only when the reader is advanced enough to solve the problems listed with little to no assistance.

If you read just the solutions without having to solve the problem sets yourself, two things will happen.
(1). You'll end up memorizing the methods that works for that particular 'class' of problems without knowing that they're cases where those methods are unsuitable.

(2). You'll encounter solutions to problems in which the author uses an identity or theorem you probably don't know or understand because you lack the necessary theoretical background.

For example, in triangle ABC with in-centre I and circumradius R. To prove that .

AI + BI + CI ≤ 3R . . . (1)
It suffices to prove that
cosA + cosB + cosC ≤ 3/2 (2)

This is actually a solution to a problem in one of Titu's books. That's how the solution was written, you'll never understand how he went from (1) to (2) if you don't have sophisticated trigonometry skills.

Moreover. If you're reading a solution to a problem on Inequalities, Functional Equations, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Polynomials, Sequences, Number Theory and Algebra problems that are quite difficult without a some level of background. You'll only be wasting your time.

MathsEconomics:


I doubt if you'll find any. The reason we do not do well at the Olymiads is because of the poor Mathematics culture we have down here. To do well at the Olympiads, you need good books. China is the best but owning to the fact that it's a very competitive country, their books are highly technical. Another good choice is Titu's book but, as pointed put before, his books are also technical and presupposes the reader has some level of Mathematical sophistication.

I suggest you start with Hall n Knight for Algebra, Loney for Trigonometry. Keep Todhunter close too. When you're advanced enough, you can proceed to Jiri Herman et al and then try books from Titu again.

Good luck bro. Don't forget Combinatorics, Geometry and Number Theory. Moreover, better start learning functional and polymial equations, you need them to even attempt any question at the international level.

Nice

If you are passionate about math, send me an email at goldpill1968@outlook.com, I can share some material that will help you beyond your school's curriculum.

goldpill:
If you are passionate about math, send me an email at goldpill1968@outlook.com, I can share some material that will help you beyond your school's curriculum.

I'll send you one immediately. I have a good collection of e-books but past questions have proved harder to get.