Apply

You can apply through the Google form here.

Here are the problems you have to submit for the application. Partial solutions and potential approaches are welcome, if you don't have a complete solution (see below).

Problem 1
Problem 2
Problem 3 (see bottom of page first) - Reading Material, Question, Combined

Update 1: Problem 3 has been updated as of 5:30 pm IST on April 1, 2020.

Update 2: Link to Problem 3 updated as of 1:10 pm IST on April 3, 2020. It should work properly now. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to applicants.

Update 3: Problem 3 split into 2 documents for convenience as of 1:10 pm on April 4, 2020. There is no change in the problem itself.

Note: The solutions to the application problems that you submit must be completely your own, and you are not supposed to use any resources other than those explicitly permitted for arriving at them. You are also not supposed to discuss the solutions with anybody.

Applications are due April 5, 11:59 pm IST.

The application can take you between 3 hrs and a day, depending on your mileage and how comfortable you are with parsing lots of notation and introductory college math. Note that the questions are difficult for the high school level. You should aim to flesh out your reasoning and whatever thoughts you have had, even if you know that the answer is not correct or complete. We care about your engagement and approach. We look forward to learning about you!

For Problem 3, read this first: In the spirit of the camp, this problem requires that you get familiar with some new math from the reading material. It's going to be a wall of text, with many new concepts and definitions. It won't be unusual if you get confused often or have to go back to examples or definitions every now and then. That's okay. Play around with examples, look at them again, maybe look up some new examples of groups, try to get comfortable. This problem can take a while to work through, and that's okay.

We want you to know that in the camp, you will be exposed to a lot of new ideas very fast, and we don't want you to get bogged down. Of course, at camp, we will be around to make sure you get guidance when you're stuck, and there is definitely a difference between how this document and an in-person class clarifies things (the latter often being much better), but we wanted to get you warmed up for the experience through this. Don't be afraid of diving into things that you aren't fully comfortable with, and have fun!

Also, while we hope that our mention of the word "hexagon" might have made it clear, we'd like to clarify that we are talking about a closed necklace in Problem 3, Part C.