Recently, the Internet in China has been dominated by a 17-year-old secondary school student named Jiang Ping because she participated in the 2024 Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, and achieved a good score of 12th place, successfully entering the finals. There are several reasons why Jiang Ping has attracted attention:
1. Jiang Ping is the only secondary school student among the contestants, and a reporter specially read the contestant schools in front of Jiang Ping for Jiang Ping, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and MIT......
To be honest, the sudden appearance of a Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province in this list can be described as magical.
2. Jiang Ping is the only girl among the top 30 contestants. In the impression of Chinese, mathematics, a subject that requires particularly strong abstract thinking ability, is the field of boys, how can a 17-year-old girl learn mathematics so well?
3. Many people suspect that Jiang Ping cheated in this open-book exam, and it is even likely that her teacher Wang Yanqiu answered the question, and the whole incident is a hype.
So what's the truth of the matter?
Jiangsu Lianshui Secondary Vocational School
Let's start with Jiangsu Lianshui.
Lianshui County, a county under the jurisdiction of Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, is located in the northeast of Huai'an City, with a permanent population of 818,200 as of the end of 2022.
China is very large, and there are 1,299 county-level administrative regions like Lianshui. I think most Chinese, like me, have never heard of this Lianshui County.
However, Lianshui is on fire, so now Jiang Ping's huge image can be seen on the streets of Lianshui County, and Jiang Ping has become the image spokesperson of the entire Lianshui, and has made a strong show in the country.
Jiang Ping's school is Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province, which doesn't even have its own website, and its popularity is now rising.
I found an introduction to the school on the Internet, which is a very ordinary secondary school.
In fact, Jiang Ping scored 621 points when she took the high school entrance examination in 2022, and she has been admitted to a local high school, and has even participated in the military training organized by the high school, but Jiang Ping's sister and two good friends are in Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province, and if they study secondary school, the tuition fee is subsidized, which is a lot of money for Jiang Ping's family.
Based on various considerations, Jiang Ping gave up high school and chose to come to Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province to study her favorite fashion design major.
Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition
I believe that like many people like me, the first time I heard about the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, isn't Alibaba engaged in e-commerce? How did you organize a math competition, and what happened to Alibaba DAMO Academy?
It all started in 2018.
Launched in 2018, the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition (DAMO Academy) has attracted more than 250,000 participants from more than 70 countries and regions around the world, making it the world's largest online mathematics competition.
Since the first competition was held in 2018, it has been held every year except 2019, and more than 50,000 people have registered for the preliminary competition in 2024.
Although before Jiang Ping appeared, ordinary people knew little about this competition, but in the mathematical community, this competition did have a certain popularity.
The Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition has several features that are incomparable to the official Mathematics Olympiad.
First of all, anyone can apply, regardless of age, nationality, occupation, or education. This year, there is even no limit to carbon-based, silicon-based, and even AI artificial intelligence answers.
In other words, it's a completely open competition, and aliens can participate as long as they can answer the questions correctly. If it weren't for this openness, I'm afraid it would be difficult for Jiang Ping to qualify.
Secondly, the competition is divided into two stages: the preliminary round and the final, the preliminary round is an open-book exam, the examination time is 48 hours, as long as you reach a certain score line, you can enter the final; The final is a closed-book examination that lasts for 8 hours, and the final ranking is determined.
Don't think that the preliminary round is an open-book exam, the difficulty is low, Alibaba chooses the form of open-book exam, that is, there is confidence, the top mathematicians they invited to make questions, even if it is an open-book exam, you can search the Internet, the library, you can't find a place to copy.
The final stage is divided into five tracks: Algebra and Number Theory, Geometry and Topology, Analysis and Equations, Combinatorics and Probability, and Applied and Computational Mathematics. Runners need to select a track to enter the answer screen (note: once the track is determined, it cannot be changed). Finally, the contestants will be judged according to their scores.
No reference or use of scientific computing software is allowed in the finals.
In the end, the contest offers a generous prize pool.
Gold Award 5 people Bonus $30,000/person
Silver Award: 10 winners, Bonus $15000/person
Bronze Award: 20 winners, Prize money: $8000/person
Excellence Award: 50 people, and the prize money is $2000/person
Jiang Ping has passed the preliminaries and will compete in the final this Saturday, June 22.
There is no one in ten thousand coincidences
So why is there news that a genius girl like Jiang Ping stands out in the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition?
In my opinion, this is a one-in-a-million coincidence.
First, a genius girl attends a secondary school.
Jiang Ping is undoubtedly talented, and she scored 612 points in the high school entrance examination with a full score of 780 points, which shows that her grades are definitely not to the extent that she can't go to high school and can only go to technical secondary school. However, due to various reasons, Jiang Ping, who scored more than 130 points in mathematics in the high school entrance examination, chose a secondary school to study.
Although this situation is rare, it may not be uncommon in China's rural areas, especially in peasant families with relatively modest economic conditions.
Second, Maxima met Hao Bole.
Jiang Ping's mathematical talent, if she hadn't met her math teacher Wang Yanqiu, I'm afraid she would have been buried forever.
Speaking of Wang Runqiu, in fact, there is still a small background, Wang Yanqiu studied under Professor Lu Dianchen of the School of Mathematical Sciences of Jiangsu University, and graduated from Jiangsu University in 2020 with a master's degree in mathematics.
Lu Dianchen is a doctor of engineering from Jiangsu University, and is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor of Jiangsu University.
After joining Lianshui Secondary Vocational School in Jiangsu Province, Wang Yanqiu indulged in basic mathematics research in addition to teaching, and participated in the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition for three consecutive years, ranking 166th in the 2022 preliminaries, 432nd in the 2023 preliminaries, and 125th in the 2024 preliminaries.
Jiang Ping was the first student of Wang Runqiu after joining the provincial Lianshui High School, and his mathematics scores in the first monthly exam were far ahead, which attracted Wang Yanqiu's attention. "At that time, Jiang Ping could score more than 130 points in the paper with a full score of 150 points, while the second student in the class could only score 50 or 60 points, and Jiang Ping was 'cliff-like' ahead." Wang Runqiu said.
In order to fully exploit Jiang Ping's potential, Wang began to provide her with personalized tutoring, and he recommended Jiang Ping to "Advanced Mathematics" published by Tongji University and "Mathematical Analysis" by Xie Huimin. In the process of studying multivariate calculus, Jiang Ping, who encountered difficulties, continued to study the "Partial Differential Equation".
It is no exaggeration to say that if she hadn't met Wang Runqiu, Jiang Ping might not even know about the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition.
By strength or by cheating?
Based on simple reasoning, many people think that Jiang Ping's results are based on cheating, mainly for the following reasons:
1. At present, there is a video of Jiang Ping doing questions through the board book circulating on the Internet, and it was reported that the staff of Alibaba DAMO Academy knew that the secondary school students won the 12th place, and rushed to Lianshui to ask Jiang Ping to answer the questions on the spot, which was later denied by the Damo Academy.
No matter who took this video, some people question that many mathematical symbols in the board book are not written in a standardized manner, of course, I can't understand it at this level like everyone, but it doesn't matter, we can ask people who can understand it to watch, for example, Professor Zhao Ruhan (@北星微博) of the Department of Mathematics at Brookport College of the State University of New York published his recognition and support for Jiang Ping's video board solving process.
Personally, I believe in this judgment, because those who question it just say that the symbol is not written correctly, and the copy will not be copied, Professor Zhao pointed out the key point, if it is copied, (4) and (5) do not need to appear.
As for whether the symbols are written correctly, I think it is a strange thing to ask an amateur of mathematics who has not received formal systematic training to write like a master in mathematics.
2. The most important point is that Fang Zhouzi, who is a professional fraud, posted a report card, saying that Jiang Ping only scored 83 points in a monthly mathematics exam in his sophomore year of high school, and even failed a monthly mathematics exam in the second grade of an ordinary secondary school, with a score of 150 points, how could he participate in such a difficult mathematics competition, Jiang Ping couldn't even understand the questions.
No one has confirmed this statement so far, and no one has falsified it, so I would like to share my opinion.
Jiang Ping's score of 621 in the high school entrance examination is undoubted, and her score in mathematics is 130 points, which cannot be said to be top, but it is definitely excellent.
A student with acceptable qualifications who voluntarily gave up high school to study for a secondary school can deduce for himself what kind of results he will achieve in the mathematics exam.
3, Wang Runqiu helped Jiang Ping cheat, in fact, the questions were all done by Wang Runqiu.
Because Jiang Ping's 12th place result is a fact, no matter how you cheat, whether it is AI, a master, an alien, or a Damo Academy leaked in advance, no matter what, someone must give Jiang Ping the correct answer.
With the resources that Jiang Ping can access, in addition to the deliberate hype of the Damo Academy and the appearance of aliens, the most likely thing is that Wang Runqiu made a move in the tutorial class for something.
It's the most ridiculous possibility.
Because Wang Yanqiu participated in the Alibaba Mathematics Competition, the best score was only 125, and last year there were even only 432, if he really wants to hype the training class, why does he want to participate in the competition, and deliberately conceal his strength, and the students who are not as good as themselves in the exam, isn't it better not to participate at all?
Since you want to make money by hype, what's the point of deliberately taking a lower ranking?
What I would like to conclude with
Chinese know that the college entrance examination is the most extensive and influential examination in China, compared with the college entrance examination, what civil service examination, law examination, and high school entrance examination are several grades worse, in addition, the college entrance examination is the fairest examination in China, as long as you take this examination, whether you are a poor child, or a rich second generation of officials, the score is the only standard.
Since the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, countless people have changed their destiny through the college entrance examination.
Studying, taking the college entrance examination, taking the university entrance examination, finding a job, starting a family, getting married, having children, and the children continue to take the college entrance examination.
Countless Chinese have gone through such a life journey, and I am one of them.
But in Jiang Ping's story, what touched me the most was not the labels of 17 years old, secondary school student, genius girl, and 12 in the world, in my opinion, there is never a shortage of geniuses in this world.
What really touched me was Jiang Ping's ability to grasp the direction of her life, which is an ability that most people do not have, and many people don't even realize that they don't have this ability.
For ordinary people, going to high school and going to college is the only way, but Jiang Ping gave up, on the one hand, based on the practical considerations of economic conditions; On the other hand, she knows that her interest is fashion design, and perhaps studying fashion design directly is a better way to realize the value of life than going to high school.
In fact, everyone who has filled in the volunteer can ask themselves, do you know what you want to do in the future?
Many people think that Jiang Ping should enter Zhejiang University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Harvard, and MIT to further study mathematics and become a mathematician, so as not to bury her mathematical talent.
There is always no shortage of this kind of YY man on the Internet, these people can't live their own lives, but they like to point fingers at other people's lives.
Jiang Ping doesn't think so, she said, I like fashion design, I also like mathematics, if I have to choose between the two, I choose fashion design. She also said that sometimes, I think good clothing design is as beautiful as math.
Compared with Jiang Ping, some people are really superficial and scary.
For Jiang Ping, mathematics may be just a hobby, a hobby that brings her joy.
I wish Jiang Ping good results in the finals and a good life in the future!
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