City girl headed for Maths Olympiad in Shanghai

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A girl from Kerala has been selected to the six-member Indian team for the 67th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) to be held in Shanghai, China, from July 10 to 21.

Seventeen-year-old Sanjana Philo Chacko from Thiruvananthapuram will join another girl from Maharashtra and two boys each from Karnataka and Delhi at the international event in which teams from over 100 countries participate.

This year also stands out because two girls have been selected to the Indian team.

Sanjana, who lives at Pothencode with her engineer parents Joseph Siju Chacko and Anu Joseph and sibling Michael Eranullil Chacko, studied at St. Thomas Residential School here till class X. Then, she was homeschooled, pursuing the Cambridge International A Level curriculum as she wanted to focus on Olympiads and study at her own pace.

Sanjana who has always loved Mathematics and Science heard about the Olympiads when she was in class VII and started preparing for them a year later. In class IX, she qualified for the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad. There she met other students attempting Mathematical Olympiads and that really got her interested in them. Soon, she began exploring similar opportunities and is set to represent the country at the Shanghai IMO. “The Olympiads have been an enjoyable part of my life. The IMO is something I have been working towards for many years. It is nice to have finally achieved that goal.”

The selection for the IMO is done at various levels, including an objective round, regional round, and a national round. After this, 60 students in classes VIII to XII who perform the best take part in a training camp for the IMO at the Chennai Mathematical Institute during the summer. Classes, practice tests, and four selection tests later, they are whittled down to six students.

Sanjana for whom Shanghai will be the first IMO does not want to predict how she will fare. “I will just give my best for my country.”

At the IMO she hopes to meet fellow Math enthusias