KOCHI: The Mathematical Olympiad is considered to be one of the most difficult. And only a few can make it to the finals. The Sreekaryam-based Rohit Sujan, a Class IV student from Loyola School has been working hard for a year. In the Olympiad exams held this year, Rohit was awarded a medal and certificate for winning the International Zonal Rank at the International Mathematics Olympiad conducted by the Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF).
Over 50 lakh students, from 50,000 schools in 1400 cities across 30 countries participated in the six SOF Olympiad exams during 2018-19. Besides Rohit, two students from Kochi also won medals. There was initially one round at the school level from which a few students were selected. After Level 1 competition, the next round was held at the national level.
Rohit was interested in mathematics since his kindergarten days and loved solving problems.
“Mathematics has always been his favourite subject. Last year, although he took part in the competition, he did not qualify. But he did not give up and started working hard so that he could qualify,” says Sujan Raj, Rohit’s father. In order to excel, Rohit also enrolled himself in Qmaths, a special programme for solving analytical problems. Besides this, he also learned some of the problem-solving skills using Byju’s application.
The SOF organised a felicitation function to recognise and award the top three international rank holders from classes I to XII for the Olympiad exams held during 2018-19. On the occasion, Justice Dipak Misra, former Chief Justice of India, was the chief guest.
Justice Deepak Misra said, “Courage is the mother of all virtues. If you have the courage, your mind will work. Failure is a challenge and the Olympiad teaches you to fight such challenges. Every Indian citizen must respect the law. Not being afraid of any kind of challenge should be the first motto in everyone’s life.” Rohit is gearing up to participate in other competitions.