<p>Just curious...</p>
<p>Are individuals who did awesome in international competitions (math, science, etc.) always the ones that are top notch students in those top universities? Or do high school competition really matter in university studies, since university teaches all students the necessary materials and in the end all students know same amount of information?</p>
<p>Lol, i know this is a really retarded questino, but im just curious. :P</p>
<p>so i know some singaporean olympiad team member</p>
<p>He's at Berkeley now, got 16 A+ out of 17 classes
Score higher than the graduate student instructor on exams
got 347/350 in final when the average is like below 200....</p>
<p>and more
absolute craziness</p>
<p>The people who represent the US at the int'l olympiads tend to all go on to fabulous things in college. They show up again in the Putnam Mathematics Competitions or ACM (computing contest). Some concentrate on research or other things and don't get involved in competitions. But if you google search the names of the high school olympiad stars, they all seem to do great things in college also.</p>
<p>People from other countries who attend int'l olympiads have a wide range of abilities, just like the sports olympics (think Chinese gymnasts vs. Jamaican bobsled team).</p>
<p>You might be interested in the book Countdown by Steve Olsen. It follows around the 6 members of the US team to the 2001 IMO, providing background. These are very unusual kids.</p>
<p>Singaporeans are incredibly disciplined because their secondary education is difficult (way more difficult that American secondary education) and with much more pressure.</p>