ABOUT IMO:
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the largest, oldest and most prestigious scientific Olympiad for high school students. The history of IMO dates back to 1959, when the first edition was held in Romania with seven countries participating: Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and USSR. Since then, the event has been held every year (except 1980) in a different country. Currently, more than 100 countries from 5 continents participate. Each country can send a team of up to six secondary students or individuals who have not entered University or the equivalent, as of the date of celebration of the Olympiad, plus one team leader, one deputy leader, and observers if desired.

During the competition, contestants have to solve, individually, two contest papers on two consecutive days, with three problems each day. Each problem is worth seven points. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded in the ratio of 1:2:3 according to the overall results ; half of the contestants receive a medal. In order to encourage as many students as possible to solve complete problems, certificates of honorable mention are awarded to students (not receiving a medal) who obtained 7 points for at least one problem.

 

REGULATIONS:
1-General:
1.1 The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is governed by these General Regulations together with the Annual Regulations which specify details specific to each IMO or required by national law. The Annual Regulations take precedence over the General Regulations.

 

1.2 An IMO takes place on dates and in a country or territory (the “Host Country”) specified in the Annual Regulations.
 

1.3 A “Host Organisation” specified in the Annual Regulations has overall responsibility for the organisation of an IMO. The Host Organisation is responsible for ensuring that the arrangements for that IMO support the aims of the IMO and competition in the spirit of fair play. The Host Organisation may approve extensions of the deadlines specified in the Annual Regulations.
 

1.4 The aims of the IMO are: 
• to discover, encourage and challenge mathematically gifted young people in all countries; • to foster friendly international relationships among mathematicians of all countries;

• to create an opportunity for the exchange of information on school syllabuses and practices throughout the world;

• to promote mathematics generally.
 

1.5 The IMO Board is governed by the Regulations and Responsibilities of the IMO Board (IMOB) and the Rules Associated with the Election of Members to the IMO Board; those documents may be amended by resolution of the Jury (see clause 6). In particular, the IMO

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Board: 
• makes recommendations to the Jury regarding future IMOs; • acts on behalf of the Jury between IMOs.
 1.6 The General Regulations may be amended, for future IMOs, by resolution of the Jury. 

 

 1.7 The Annual Regulations for an IMO must be approved by the IMO Board. 

 

 1.8 The Host Country of an IMO must contribute at least USD 5000 to the IMO   Foundation towards ongoing IMO infrastructure costs.

 

 1.9 The official languages of the IMO are English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

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 2. Participation:
 2.1 Participation in an IMO is by invitation only. Each invited country (or territory in some exceptional cases approved by the IMO Board) is entitled to send a team consisting of up to six contestants (the “Contestants”), a Leader, and a Deputy Leader, to be known collectively.

 
as the participants (the “Participants”). A team must have a Leader.  If a team does not have a Deputy Leader, the Leader must follow the Official Programme for Deputy Leaders, and does not receive the Shortlist (see sub-clause 6.5) or form part of the Jury (see clause 6) until after the Contest. Countries and territories participating in an IMO are referred to below as “Countries”. An invitation to participate in an IMO does not confer any form of political recognition by the IMO, the IMOB or the Host Country.

 2.2 A Country’s Contestants should normally be citizens or residents of that Country, and should be selected through that Country’s national Mathematical Olympiad or equivalent selection programme.  Contestants must have been born less than twenty years before 1 July in the year of participation at the IMO.  Contestants must have been normally enrolled in fulltime primary or secondary education on or after 1 December in the year prior to the IMO, or, in the case of home-schooled students, must not have received a high-school diploma (or equivalent), and must be working toward such a credential on 1

December.

 
In special circumstances the IMOB can approve minor deviation from these rules for specific countries on request. Information on deviations must be available to other participating countries.
 

2.3 Observers, including family members, (the “Observers”) may apply to accompany the Participants. Observers may be: 
• Observer A, accompanying the Leader and residing at or near the Leaders’ sites;

• Observer B, accompanying the Deputy Leader and residing at or near the Deputy Leaders’ sites;

• Observer C, accompanying the contestants and residing at their site. 
The Annual Regulations specify the charges for Observers and the deadlines for payment of such charges. Since extra accommodation is limited, no guarantee is given that applications to accompany the Participants will be successful. Members of the IMO Board who are not Leaders may attend as Observers A; the Host Organisation may, but is not obliged to, waive the charges for them. The Host Organisation should waive the charges for one Observer A and one Observer B from the Host Country for the following year’s IMO.

2.4 The official programme (the “Official Programme”) as referred to below is the programme and outline itinerary for an IMO and associated events. The Host Organisation reserves the right to amend or revise the Official Programme in whole or part. If it becomes necessary to make any significant changes, Participants and Observers of the invited Countries must be notified. Before the Host Organisation makes significant changes, the changes should be approved by the IMO Board. 
• The Official Programme contains, among other things, details of accommodation arrangements (including food) for Participants and Observers and the venues for various official events associated with an IMO. The detailed Official Programme may not be disclosed until arrival.

2.5 Each invited Country wishing to participate in an IMO must confirm their participation online (www.imo-official.org/registration) using the username and password provided by the Host Organisation, no later than the date specified in the Annual Regulations. This also confirms that the Leader agrees to abide by the General Regulations and the Annual .
Regulations for that IMO. Participants, Observers and their travel details must be registered by the dates specified in the Annual Regulations.

2.6 Leaders and Deputy Leaders are responsible for the conduct of the Contestants, and for the avoidance of doubt the Leaders and Deputy Leaders are acting in loco parentis for their Contestants except where the Host Organization has been notified in writing that an Observer has been nominated to act in loco parentis.

 

2.7 Leaders and Deputy Leaders must ensure that their Contestants know and fully understand clause 5 of these Regulations. They must also make it clear that any Contestant who violates any of these Regulations may be liable to disqualification from an IMO. In order to avoid any trouble or accident, Leaders and Deputy Leaders must also fully inform their Contestants of the information for Contestants provided by the Host Organisation.

 

2.8 The Host Organisation should invite a team from each Country that has participated in any of the three previous IMOs. In special cases the IMO Board should specify the Countries to be invited, taking into account financial and accommodation constraints and the following guidelines: 
• where two or more Countries that have each participated in past IMOs unite to form one country or territory, one team from the united Country should be invited;

• where a Country that has participated in past IMOs breaks up to become a number of separate countries or territories, each of the new countries or territories should be invited to send a team to the IMO, but no invitation should be sent to the former Country that has now been divided (there should not be ‘double representation’).

 

2.9 A country or territory that has not participated in any of the three previous IMOs may be invited to send a team, or to send an Observer with a view to sending a team to the following IMO, with the approval of the IMO Board and the Host Countries for the following two IMOs.

 

2.10 The Leader should be sufficiently involved in mathematics to carry out the following responsibilities.

1. Inform the Contestants, the Deputy Leader and other persons involved, of the regulations for the Olympiad. In particular the Leader has to inform the Contestants that the use of notebooks, mathematical tables, calculators, computers, etc. is not allowed.

2. Ensure that her/his Country submits problems to the Problem Selection Committee of the Host Country. Ensure that the proposed problems and their solutions are kept secret.

3. Attend all the meetings of the Jury of the IMO and take part in its work.

4. Inform the Jury if any shortlisted problem is already known to her/him, her/his team or other people involved in the preparation of the team.

5. Ensure the preparation of an accurate translation of the chosen problems into the contestants’ own languages for the use of her/his team.

6. Ensure that the deadlines set by the Host Country are met.  

7. Ensure that the Contestants from her/his Country receive fair scores in coordination that are consistent with the marking schemes and fairly reward the quality of their work.

8. Keep her/his Country’s contact details on www.imo-official.org up to date.  

9. Inform her/his national committee of decisions taken by the Jury during the IMO.

 

2.11 The Deputy Leader should be sufficiently involved in mathematics to help the Leader, and in case of an emergency to replace the Leader. In particular, the Deputy Leader should:  

1. assist the Leader with the evaluation of the team’s solutions to the problems;

2. assist the Leader during the coordination of the problems.

 Additional responsibilities include:

3. Inform the Contestants of the regulations pertaining to the examination.

 4. Supervise the conduct and welfare of the team during the activities of the IMO.

 

2.12 Government officials and other non-mathematicians are welcome to attend the IMO and are encouraged to do so as Observers. 
The full of regulations in this link: 
https://www.imo-official.org/documents/RegulationsIMO.pdf

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Invitation:
PROCEDURE TO BE FOLLOWED BY A NEW COUNTRY WISHING TO TAKE PART IN THE INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD  
If a country would like to become a participant in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the procedure is as follows: 
 
1. The Ministry of Education of the country, and/or the country's national Mathematical Association, should send a formal letter of application for an invitation to send an Observer to the next IMO. The letter of application should be addressed to the Secretary of the IMO Advisory Board, at the address below. 
 
2. The application should include information on how the country plans to select and prepare its national team for the event. Copies of national Mathematical Olympiad papers, for example, should be included. Any other relevant information (such as participation in regional Mathematical Olympiads) should also be included. 
 
3. The application is then considered by the IMO Advisory Board. If the application for Observer status is approved, the host country of the next IMO will issue an invitation to the country to send an Observer or Observers (who must be adults) to the IMO. The country will be responsible for paying all costs involved, including the travelling expenses of the Observer/s, and the relevant accommodation costs as set by the host country. (When a country becomes a full member of the IMO, all accommodation costs of the Team Leader, Deputy Team Leader and the team members are covered by the host country.) 
 
4. At the IMO the Observer will be able to gain a great deal of insight into how the IMO is run, the standards expected of participating countries, and how other countries select and train their teams. 
 
5. With the agreement of the host countries for the following two years, full membership of the IMO is then granted for the following year by the IMOAB. 
 
 
Professor Gregor Dolinar Secretary, IMO Advisory Board University of Ljubljana. 
 
Tel: +386 1 4768 309 Email: gregor.dolinar@fe.uni-lj.si Web: http://matematika.fe.uni-lj.si/Gregor_Dolinar

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IMPORTANT DATES
February 15, 2018    Last day for online confirmation of participation by countries
March 15, 2018    Last day for receipt of problem proposals
April 20, 2018    Last day for online registration of leaders, deputy leaders, observers, the number of contestants and arrival day for leaders and observers
May 20, 2018    Last day for full payment of charges for single rooms and observers in cleared funds
May 31, 2018    Last day for online registration of contestants
June 15, 2018    Last day for online registration of all travel details

The link of this page: http://www.imo2018.org/index.html#