On the Science & Mathematics Blog, anonymous teachers across Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 02th, 2018, Riocentro, International Congress of Mathematicians 2018, ICM 2018, Award Ceremony for the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad, na foto: Davi Campana/R2
Article published by the deputy director of IMPA, Claudio Landim, on the Science and Mathematics blog of the newspaper O Globo.
There are two types of medalists in the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP). Students like Gérson Tavares, from São Paulo, the first to win four gold medals, and students from the Augustinho Brandão school in Cocal dos Alves, Piauí.
In the four years he participated in the Olympiad, Gérson was the only student from his school to receive a medal. He owes this result exclusively to his talent and dedication. João Vitor, from Maceió, is another example. In 2021, he came in first place among all participants in the OBMEP Level 2 (eighth and ninth grades of elementary school), tied with a student from the Military College of Brasília. The only medalist from his school, he surpassed teenagers from illustrious institutions, such as the various Application Colleges, the Military Colleges, and Pedro II.
It's difficult to imagine a similar result in a traditional exam, such as the ENEM, designed to measure a student's proficiency. The OBMEP exam, on the other hand, aims to detect aptitude for mathematics, an ambition corroborated by the results of Gérson and João Vítor.
Cocal dos Alves, in Piauí, produces a different kind of medalist. There, every year, students from the Augustinho Brandão school win gold medals. They won four in each of the last two editions. The medals certainly reward the students' ingenuity and dedication, but the number and regularity of the awards reveal the existence of a training program and a mentor. In the case of Cocal dos Alves, the training is coordinated by Professor Antônio Amaral.
In fact, although the OBMEP exam seeks to identify students with a talent for mathematics, a program based on teaching materials produced by OBMEP and available on its website can lead to good performance in the Olympiad.
While browsing through the list of award winners from the last edition of OBMEP, I found a gold medalist, Kalel Lucena, from Cruzeiro do Sul, in Acre, a municipality of 90,000 inhabitants on the border with Peru.
At her school, São José, two other girls, Alessa Lima and Ana Heloisa Rosa, won bronze medals in 2021. In the previous edition, in 2019, a student from São José, Samuel Reis da Silva, won a gold medal; Kalel a silver medal, and two other students, Cassia Silva and Mateus Saraiva, bronze medals. In 2018 and 2017, four bronze medals were won each year.
Winning two gold medals in two consecutive editions is a remarkable achievement. Since the creation of OBMEP in 2005, only one other student from Acre had won a gold medal: Bruna Larissa Carvalho de Sousa, from Santa Rosa do Purus, in 2011.