Opening a link from the Math Team sponsor, I scrolled down the 20-page Honor Roll list for the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) 8, a list containing hundreds of names of middle school students who represented the top 5 percent  of AMC 8 scorers across the nation. Scanning for “Daniel Wright Junior High School,” I nervously approached the end of the PDF, wondering if I had scored high enough to reach the cutoff score of 19 at the time. Finally, I spotted “T. BUI” along with my score of “21/25”: my pride growing as I compared my score with my peers.

Taking the AMC 8 in 7th grade introduced me to the AMC, a national math competition consisting of various contests that challenged the extent of students’ mathematical knowledge. While I didn’t know it at the time, the AMC 8 was part of a much greater string of mathematics contests, ending with the United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) and the United States of America Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO). Little did I know that the AMC was just the beginning: an introduction to the notoriously difficult competitions known as olympiads, that thousands of high school students compete in every year.

Many Stevenson students study for and compete in such high school olympiads, determined to become the top scorers of each round, in pursuit of prestige. The overarching problem with participating in these olympiads though, is that to reach the heights of high school olympiads—receiving medals on international stages that carry high regard in the academic community—students must sacrifice so much time and effort to know the in-and-outs of the fields they compete in. But that dedication sometimes isn’t enough to help them advance to the next level, disappointing many competitors as they question whether the amount of studying and preparation they invested in such olympiads was worth it. 

Each of over ten high school olympiads, while varying in pathways and requirements for advancing, all fundamentally exhibit the same general structure: all students are eligible to compete in the beginning or “opening” exam, the number of advancing competitors gradually decreasing with each progressive round until a few number of individuals are selected to compete in the international olympiads. Along the way, students earn awards that recognize their accomplishments, even if it isn’t at the highest level.

Having taken an interest in biology, I sought to compete in the U.S.A. Biology Olympiad (USABO) after meeting an International Biology Olympiad (IBO) medalist at the first Biology Olympiad club meeting in my freshman year. Determined to become an IBO participant like them, I committed myself to studying all the major topics covered in the USABO, reading numerous textbooks, ranging from Campbell’s Biology to Alberts Molecular Biology of the Cell, hoping to learn as much as I could in preparation for the USABO.

Spending many hours per week “grinding” prep materials, I wrote down processes in notebooks and Google Docs documents, scribbled diagrams on whiteboards, and created hundreds of flashcards on Quizlet over the span of my three years. Despite earning the prestigious “Honorable Mention” recognition for being among the top 125 scorers of all USABO Semifinalists as a junior, I harbored deep regret because I couldn’t achieve my dream of becoming a USABO National Finalist after three years of continuously studying. I kept convincing myself that I could have studied even harder to become a USABO National Finalist but to do so, I would have had to continue the perpetual cycle of reading, studying, and reviewing that not only largely dictated my entire high school career but also completely destroyed my mental health.

To tell the truth, I didn’t actually learn more about the topics I was interested in; rather, I only learned how to score well on USABO, struggling to find meaningful applications of all the topics I learned outside of it. While I found topics like cell biology and anatomy and physiology interesting to study since they connected to my future career in medicine, I absolutely dreaded reading paragraph after paragraph about plant biology and physiology. As I forced myself to read chapter after chapter about plant hormones and development, my own mental health rapidly plummeted as I voluntarily chose to torment myself, my mind constantly screaming to stop.

A dilemma then arose: should I only study the topics I’m passionate about, or should I sacrifice my mental health to learn a concept with little to no connection to my future career that could translate to higher scores in olympiads? Unfortunately, the majority of competitors, including me, chose to waste their time, energy, and sanity into studying boring topics anyway, the ultimate motives of such a sacrifice to seek praise for showcasing competitive talent or gain accolades to put on college applications.

While the most passionate individuals or some individuals who make that sacrifice become the top scorers in the nation for an olympiad, the vast majority of individuals never advance that far and reach those heights. Disappointed, many students really do expect to have their hard work pay off after the sheer of studying they put into preparing for olympiads. The sad truth is, no matter how much you invest in any olympiad, the amount of work you put in doesn’t necessarily translate to the amount of success you expect out of your results.

What exacerbates the problem with olympiads is the emergence of smaller olympiads such as the United States Earth Science Olympiad. Even though the prestige of the newer olympiads is not on the same level as that of the older olympiads, the ever-tempting possibility of obtaining a national or international award pulls students to study for yet another competition. In addition, the allure of a newer olympiad with a smaller student pool fools students into believing they can simply “shotgun” another olympiad when, in reality, the olympiad’s selection of much smarter individuals in its specific field raises the difficulty to similar levels with mainstream olympiads despite the smaller student count.

So, is investing in Olympiads ever worth it? If you’re looking to focus on one or two activities you’d like to explore during your high school experience, any type of olympiad should never be your priority because of their poor output-to-input ratio (or productivity, in other words) compared to other extracurricular activities. Rather, treat olympiads more as challenges that you can occasionally participate in when you’re inspired. Never center your academic experience around a competition; center your decisions and commitments around what you are passionate about, rather than competitions like olympiads for academic validation.

If you are passionate about investing in olympiads, the most important thing to remember is to recognize your limits and listen to yourself before your greed and pursuit for recognition overcome you. If you’re feeling tired after studying for an hour, never push yourself to study more just because you feel that one hour isn’t enough; whenever you feel burnt out from studying too much or learning uninteresting topics, always remember to take breaks according to your body’s needs before resuming. Understanding also takes time; don’t expect to speed through a textbook or two to learn as much as you can because chances are, you probably won’t remember anything you read without the time to process and understand what you just learned.

While olympiads are certainly great ways to explore your passions and test the depths of your understanding, for the most part, olympiads will never be worth neither your utmost time nor attention. Everyone finds success in many different ways, and just because some people may find success competing in olympiads, that doesn’t mean you will also find the same amount of success and happiness competing in olympiads.