Kees den Tex (18) from Naarden has won bronze at the International Mathematics Olympiad. In this prestigious math competition, national teams compete against each other by solving three challenging math problems within four and a half hours. This year the competition took place in Oslo. In the radio program NH Throw Saturday Den Tex tells his story about the match.
Mathematics is a subject that many people fear, but Kees den Tex enjoys doing it: “I personally like mathematics so much because they are actually all puzzles that you can work on for a long time. It is more like university mathematics, because you have to prove whether things are true.”
Before he was allowed to participate in the competition, there were five preliminary rounds spread over a year and a half. A total of 3,400 students attempted to make it to the competition. This eventually resulted in a team of six students, of which Kees den Tex is a member.
Difficult tasks
At the Olympiad he was given three tough math problems. “The most challenging was the last question on day two, which differentiates it from people who are really good at math. I didn’t solve it, but I really liked it and was close to the solution.”
To give other people an idea of how such a task works, Den Tex comes up with an example. “A part that we often talk about is combinatorics, which is handy counting. An example of this is that you have twenty Easter eggs. How many different ways can you color those Easter eggs. We talked about the Olympiad with my former teacher. He also indicated that he would not be able to solve the problem.”
Bronze Medal
In the end, Den Tex won a bronze medal in the competition. A total of 589 students took part. About half of the participants received a medal. The best 44 received a gold medal, the best 101 after that a silver and then 140 participants received a bronze medal. The Dutch team has become fortieth of the 104 participating countries. China has won the competition.
Den Tex has just passed 6 vwo at the Municipal Gymnasium in Hilversum. Another math competition like the Olympiad does not exist at a higher level. As of the new academic year, the mathematician will therefore focus on his mathematics studies in Leiden.
Listen back to the whole interview with Kees den Tex via this link.