Olympiad Training for Individual Study (OTIS)
OTIS is an olympiad training program for students aiming to do well on the USA(J)MO or similar level contests. It is designed for contestants who are comfortable reading and writing proofs and can usually qualify for national olympiad (for example, consistently 10+ on AIME for American contestants is fine). Students at other levels may be interested in my list of mentors and programs.
The OTIS Excerpts#
Around the start of 2019, I posted publicly a collection of 192 problems and solutions based on materials for OTIS. This mini-book was named The OTIS Excerpts. It is designed to mostly be beginner-friendly though some of the chapters are more challenging.
Application — Year VIII#
The regular deadline for 2022-2023 was August 1. Late applications are now open, and will remain open until April 15.
See the instructions for details about late application.
Who can apply#
OTIS is open to anyone, including international students from all countries.
Students from minorities and underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. (I promise I don’t bite.) Full financial aid is available for all applications received before the deadline and admissions is done in a need-blind manner.
Admissions is only done to ensure students have sufficient mathematical background and writing ability — meaning that you can read and write proofs, understands English, and is able to learn new material from Evan-style writing. In particular, admissions is not a merit-based competition. I like the FAQ from Euler Circle, which I’ve adapted for OTIS:
The traditional way admissions are competitive is there are N applicants and M ≪ N spaces available. That is not the case for OTIS, where M > N. We dislike the idea of depriving students of an education; we will certainly not take any pride in doing so, and will never release statistics.
About OTIS#
Documents#
- Syllabus, updated for 2022-2023
- List of topics
- Example unit: handout and solutions
- Example practice exam: JMO, USAMO, and solutions
Staff#
Director
Instructors
- Anushka Aggarwal (alum V)
- Dávid Matolcsi
- Gopal Goel (alum IV-V)
- Jeffrey Kwan (alum IV-V)
- Noah Walsh (alum V-VI)
- Ram Goel (alum V-VII)
- Reed LaFleche
- Rohan Goyal (alum V)
- Sanjana Das (alum VI)
Graders
Past instructors
- Anant Mudgal (alum III)
- Ankan Bhattacharya
- Howard Halim (alum III-IV)
- James Lin
- Michael Ren (alum I-II)
- Pranjal Srivastava (alum IV)
- Zack Chroman (alum II-III)
Photos#
