Finnish Olympic Training in Mathematics

The Finnish Olympic Training in Mathematics is organized by the Finnish Mathematical Society’s Training division. Its purpose is to encourage and assist talented young to take interest in mathematics.

The training primarily consists of two components: correspondence training through regular problem sets and various training events, in particular the training weekends at Päivölä. All the training is open for all students in secondary schools. The goal is to teach students mathematics encountered in mathematical competitions, but also to provide them with general mathematical knowledge.

We unfortunately lack the resources to maintain all our materials (or these web pages) in English, so the Finnish pages are the definitive version. The training is mainly done in Finnish, but we do our best to accommodate students who either don’t speak or speak only a little Finnish. Some of the training sessions are conducted in English.

Some of the materials have also been translated to Swedish, and it is possible to have training sessions in Swedish as well.

Training camps

→ Main article in Finnish

We arrange six weekend training camps each year at the Päivölä institute; see the schedule. Newcomers are welcome at any of the six camps.

Please register at Päivölä at least one week before each weekend.

The best way to get there is by train to Toijala station. Transport will be arranged from the station to Päivölä. When you register for the weekend, please let us know what time your train will arrive. Also plan which train you will take for your return journey — this will be asked during the weekend to arrange return transport. We do not recommend any specific train, as it is easier to organise the rides if passengers are spread over several trains. Compare train fares, which now vary widely — if you can buy your ticket early and are flexible about travel times, you can save considerable money.

Another possible mode of transport is the bus. The nearest stop is Uittamo th, which is a couple of kilometres walk from the institute. Of course, one can also drive to Päivölä.

Please arrange your accommodation as soon as possible after your arrival: go to the main building, which you can identify from the canteen, and get the key. If you arrive very late (after 9pm), please inform Päivölä in advance so that the duty officer can be prepared. The programme is usually held in a large stone building, not the same as the main building. Take your shoes off in the lobby — wool socks will come in handy in winter.

During breaks in the training, it’s fun to chat with others and play a game of chess, but please be mindful of the local students. They live and study in the stone building, and their schedules are not exactly the same as those of the training. Please be quiet at night time.

The programme starts on Friday at 6.30pm and ends on Sunday at coffee time, around 1.45pm. In the mornings, breakfast is at 8am and the programme starts afterwards at 9am, finishing at 9pm in the evenings. There are meal breaks in between, and on Saturday there is usually a sauna. For supper you can get a bun in the kitchen of the stone house, starting at 9pm. To make sure there is enough for everyone, please don’t take extras until after 10.30pm.

An invoice for the weekend will be sent to your e-mail address afterwards. If you don’t receive an invoice within a couple of weeks, please contact Päivölä. It is possible that the message has accidentally ended up in your spam folder.

Math terminology

Usually, Google Translate does a decent job of translating between Finnish and English. In case some mathematical terminology is difficult, the following sources may be helpful:

The Solmu dictionary of mathematics
The Finnish Wikipedia: if the problematic term (say, keskinormaali) has a page, the corresponding English page is often linked from the ”Muilla kielillä” list (or the 文A link in the mobile view). In this case, the link is to the ”Perpendicular bisector” page, which immediately redirects to one part of the page on ”Bisection”.

Training problem sets

→ Main article in Finnish

The training problem sets are distributed in the training events, but primarily available through this website. Solutions can be sent as instructed in the problem sheet or they can be brought to the next training event. Traditionally, the problems are provided in Finnish and Swedish, but at one time we tried to provide English translations as well. These are listed below.