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I have never done well in math competitions, and am now past the point at which I can participate in them. I am asking if it is worth it to go back and practice such types of problems until I gain some level of sufficient level of mastery, or if time is better spent trying to learn more advanced topics and specializing in an area of research. It seems a little odd that I should be struggling on problems that people many years younger than me can easily solve. Is this something I should worry about? Is it possible to be a successful mathematician and not be good at contest math, and are there any examples you know of? What score should a decent mathematician be able to get on the Putnam exam?

I have heard many people express the sentiment that the two types of thinking required for research and contest math are different. But still, if a mathematician couldn't solve any problems on say, the AMC 12, this would be somewhat alarming. I'm just trying to gauge the threshold at which a lack of skills in contest math will not impede research ability.

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    [related](http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4846/advantages-of-imo-students-in-mathematical-research)2011-12-07
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    Related post (http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4846/advantages-of-imo-students-in-mathematical-research)2011-12-07
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    Why are you interested in this question? I think relatively few research mathematicians give much weight to such competitions. I don't view them as being very relevant, myself. There are some skills you learn via these competitions, but they're far from a complete toolkit, and you can learn skills like these in other, more pleasant ways, in my opinion.2011-12-07
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    Honestly? Because doing badly in competitions make me doubt my abilities in math, and if I should even be considering academics as a career. The job market is competitive enough, and if I am wondering if it is a warning sign not being able to score past certain threshold.2011-12-07
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    There is only one maths competition that really matters, and that is your degree examinations! (and your school one, etc...)2011-12-07
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    I don't think there's a strong relationship between doing well on the Putnam or IMO and doing well in mathematics research. There are all kinds of useful skills out there that help in doing mathematics research: programming skills, communication skills, maturity, independence, experience with hard sciences, engineering, etc. Long-term, picking up more non-standard skills is probably better for your prospects than worrying about contrived competitions.2011-12-07
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    I think of contest math problems as crossword or chess puzzles. I'm embarassingly bad at all three, but that doesn't matter for my research.2011-12-07

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