IMO problem solving (the ones you need for gold specifically) is much closer to research math than high school math. Generalizing from some IMO problems to others would be as impressive as starting from scratch
I kind of disagree. (I was on South Korean IMO team.) I agree IMO problems are in similar category of tasks including research math than high school math, but since IMO problems are intended to be solvable within a time limit, there is (quite low, in absolute sense) upper limit to their difficulty. Basically, intended solution is not longer than a single page. Research math problems have no such limit and can be arbitrarily difficult, or have a solution arbitrarily long.
Edit: Apart from time limit, length limit, and difficulty limit, another important aspe... (read more)
IMO problem solving (the ones you need for gold specifically) is much closer to research math than high school math. Generalizing from some IMO problems to others would be as impressive as starting from scratch
I kind of disagree. (I was on South Korean IMO team.) I agree IMO problems are in similar category of tasks including research math than high school math, but since IMO problems are intended to be solvable within a time limit, there is (quite low, in absolute sense) upper limit to their difficulty. Basically, intended solution is not longer than a single page. Research math problems have no such limit and can be arbitrarily difficult, or have a solution arbitrarily long.
Edit: Apart from time limit, length limit, and difficulty limit, another important aspe... (read more)