ITMO VKontakte Olympics: weekend in St. Petersburg and +10 points to the exam

    The school year has exceeded the equator, which means that for graduates of schools the question of exams and admission to universities is increasingly acute. Of course, the most reliable option to become a student at any Russian university is to get the maximum exam scores. However, scores are not always the best indicator of academic performance and ability. An example of this is the story of Ilya Glebov, who is now studying information security technologies at ITMO University.

    Of course, what happened with Ilya is a unique case, but there are more than 20 projects at ITMO University that allow the graduate to get guaranteed extra points for the USE. One of them is the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad, which starts very soon - in February. We will tell you more about it under the cut.




    Briefly about the Olympics


    ITMO VKontakte Olympiad is a joint project of ITMO University and a social network. This year it is held for the second time.

    For whom : students in grades 7–11 can take part in the Olympiad.

    Directions : mathematics, physics, chemistry, social studies, English and computer science.

    Key dates : correspondence stage - from February 12 to March 12. Full-time tour - from April 6 to 8.

    Features of the Olympiad : in order to take part in the correspondence round of the Olympiad, you do not need to go anywhere or submit applications on special sites and portals - just enter the official community of the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad and enter the registration data in the application.

    It will be possible to complete the Olympiad missions of the correspondence round at any time from February 12 to March 12 - the participant is given one hour for testing. By the way, it is not necessary to choose only one direction - you can compete in several disciplines at once.

    Senior students who qualified for the final of the Olympiad will be invited to a full-time tour, which will be held at ITMO University in St. Petersburg from April 6 to 8. The total time allotted for the Olympiad in the full-time round is 6 hours. At the same time, no more than 2 hours are allocated for one discipline - which also allows you to participate in the final in several directions at once.

    Prizes to the winners: a victory in the full-time stage allows you to earn up to 10 additional points to the amount of the exam on admission to ITMO University. Among the prizes: virtual reality helmets, branded ITMO.STORE products  , as well as 50 tickets to the VK Fest festival from the VKontakte social network.

    In addition : 10 participants who scored the most points during the correspondence tour will receive a travel grant. The grant covers the cost of a trip to St. Petersburg and accommodation in the city during the in-person stage of the Olympiad. The full-time stage itself involves not only solving problems, but also a cultural program - excursions to the sights of St. Petersburg, visits to the ITMO University laboratory, lectures from the University’s scientists and VKontakte employees.

    What gives participation in the Olympiad


    10 points to the exam, in fact, is not so small - many participants in the Olympiad last year said that for them these points were decisive:

    In total for the exam, I earned 260 points. The points for the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad helped me a lot to enter the chosen direction, as the passing score was 269.

    - Daniil Merenkov, direction “Information Security Technologies”

    [The sum of points for] USE 159, +10 for the Olympiad. Actually, yes, the points helped a lot to enter my program, because at least it was 163.


    - Lisa Khodyr, ICT department, “Software-protected infocommunications”

    The decisive role was played by the ID points [points for individual achievements] received for the Olympiad. It is thanks to them that I am now studying at ITMO.

    - Ksenia Kocheshkova, direction “Information systems in the humanitarian sphere”

    Photo by hackNY.org CC BY

    Among the winners there were those for whom the extra points were not decisive - but the olympiad itself, as students note, helped them test their knowledge, and the victory gave confidence in admission.

    And for someone, prizes and gifts have become an additional motivation to participate:

    270 points in total for mathematics, Russian and computer science, and 10 for the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad. Extra points were not decisive, but they allowed me to be more confident in my admission.

    - Igor Cherezov, direction “Computing systems and networks”

    According to the Unified State Examination, there were 282 points (100 for computer science and Russian, 82 for mathematics), 10 were added for the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad, they did not become decisive, since I entered without entrance examinations at another ITMO Olympiad, and the decision to enter here was made already a year ago, but gifts for participation became quite a big motivation, and I just wanted to test myself.

    - Sergey Tynyanov, Department of Computer Technology

    How to prepare


    First of all, it is worth using the demo versions for each of the items (all of them are in the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad group ). Many of the guys who won the full-time round noted that they had completed trial tasks in preparation. This year, the participants had an additional opportunity to prepare - now the group has not only demo versions, but also analyzes (with answers) of the assignments of the full-time tour of last year. Another plus of this Olympiad is that it is possible to prepare for it according to the usual collections of problems for the USE (that is, without being distracted from the educational process) - therefore, some winners of the past year focused on them:

    I prepared mainly on the materials that were laid out in the official group of the Olympiad, at the same time preparing for the exam, which also helped me.

    - Igor Cherezov

    To my surprise, the tasks of the Olympiad turned out to be quite real, these were tasks that could be solved by someone who is well versed in the school curriculum.

    - Ksenia Kocheshkova

    Many of the participants in the Olympiad who entered ITMO University advise you not to delay the preparation for exams and actively use the opportunity to get extra points - even if they do not become decisive, this will allow you to tighten your knowledge before exams:

    I advise you to participate in the Olympiads (not only ITMO VKontakte), they very well develop the mind, in addition, they allow you to do without entrance tests.

    - Sergey Tynyanov

    Last year, most of the participants in the Olympiad (more than 60%) were 11th grade students. However, the winners of the 2017 Olympiad recommend using this opportunity not only to graduates (the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad is designed for students from grades 7–11) - this will help to understand the technique of the competition and gain experience in participating in competitions:

    You need to start preparing [for admission] back in high school, when you liked some subject, so that the exam became just an unpleasant formality, and not a terrible surprise.

    - Rufina Kharisova, direction “Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies of photonics and optoinformatics”

    Speaking specifically about the Olympiads and the exam, it is necessary to start preparing as early as possible, at least from the 8th grade, even from the 5th. Getting ready to enter ITMO in grade 11, for example, is too late, time is catastrophically short for this.

    The sooner you start participating in the Olympiads, the greater the chance to win and be prepared for all the surprises that may arise every year.

    - Yaroslav Yakimov, direction “Information Security”

    Photo m1try CC BY

    Last year statistics


    The ITMO VKontakte Olympiad -2017 attracted more than 2,200 participants, most of whom decided to test their strengths in computer science and mathematics, which is naturally relevant disciplines for entering ITMO University. 75 participants of the Olympiad were among the winners of the full-time tour (in all directions). Of these, 33 people took advantage of additional points and eventually became students of ITMO University.

    To date, more than 3,500 people have already registered for participation in the Olympiad - therefore, it is likely that this year even more applicants will have the opportunity to increase the amount of points when they enter ITMO University.

    At the exam I received a total of three subjects 256 points. Due to the diploma of the ITMO VKontakte Olympiad, I got another 10 points. But in fact, they were not decisive when entering university, because I did without entrance examinations. Although it was nice to be in the ranking of applicants higher than those whose points for ID [were] less.

    - Artem Krylov, direction “Information systems and technologies”

    You can take part in the Olympiad starting on February 12. And register as a participant - now .

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