<p>What I’ve heard from my son is that different students have different gifts/abilities and they sort of end of sharing the wealth if that makes sense. I know my son’s IMO friend has helped him make the transition to upper division math as a freshman a lot easier because of his experience. In turn, my son has helped others with physics since he’s very experienced in that arena. (And he can help make any guy look great in a suit-ha!)</p>
<p>They also encourage each other. I know when my son was skipping class too much first semester, his friends got on him to get to class more. </p>
<p>I like that! :-)</p>
<p>Oh, and I just thought of something else. My son and his friends were used to working together on team competitions such as ARML, so it seems only natural that they would continue this kind of collaboration.</p>