01/09/2023

OBMEP: Gold medalist gives private lessons in Laje (BA)

A resident of the rural area of Laje (BA), a municipality with 21,000 inhabitants, Gustavo Andrade Barreto, a Mondays-year high school student, won the city's first gold medal during the 1Fridays edition of OBMEP. The gold medal guaranteed the young man his first airplane trip to participate in the national awards ceremony of the Olympiad, which took place in June of this year in Florianópolis (SC). "I didn't even expect the trip to be so incredible. I wanted to have stayed longer at the hotel," he said nostalgically.

Gustavo, a student at the Ruy José de Almeida State School, has accumulated four awards in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools): an honorable mention (2018); two silver medals (2019 and 2022) and one gold medal (2021). He says that the first medal he won came after the arrival of the internet in the region.

“Before I had internet at home, I had to go to relatives' houses. I didn't have much access. When I received an honorable mention, I had answered 18 questions correctly in the first phase. The following year, I again answered 18 questions correctly on the exam. Because of that, my coordinator gave me a test and offered me a level 2 exam. I answered 13 questions correctly.”

She saw something in me and started sending me printed copies of past OBMEP exams and exploring my abilities.”

A good student in all subjects, Gustavo says that until taking his first OBMEP exam, mathematics was not among his favorite subjects. It was the logic concepts and the possibilities for developing the questions that drew the student closer to the science.

“As the level of difficulty increased, I excelled and realized my potential. The Olympiad gave me the opportunity to learn more complex things and I saw that I could develop even further. At school, you write down some calculations and give the results. In the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), you have to justify them. I liked this development. It was complicated to express my thoughts mathematically, but I kept improving.”

The achievements in the science competition earned the student three spots in the PIC (Junior Scientific Initiation Program) and the OBMEP Mentors Program – which offers PIC students the opportunity to study advanced subjects in various fields. Gustavo chose to study Astrophysics.

While the school is reviewing the area of a square and teaching plane figures, I'm already on more advanced content. I remember calculating the mass of a black hole with the radius of the Earth. It opened my mind to algebra," he said excitedly.

Gustavo's mother, Elizane de Lima Andrade Barreto, highlighted the importance of scientific competition in her son's life.

“He had no knowledge of OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) nor its consequences until the day he won a silver medal. We were overjoyed and motivated him to strive for the gold medal. To our delight, he won gold and another silver. With that, doors opened for his studies. I want to tell parents to encourage their children to focus on their studies. Only those who experience these moments know the importance of education,” said Elizane.

Today, in addition to preparing for the second phase of the 18th OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad), Gustavo already gives private math lessons in the city. Despite "teaching," the young man hasn't yet decided what profession he would like to pursue in the future. "Maybe engineering, astrophysics, or physics."