During the EGMO the contestants get to tackle six hard problems each. As a result there will be over 1200 (partial) solutions to check. It is the Coordination Committee’s responsibility to ensure that all of this work gets graded in a consistent and fair manner. Consequently all students get the score and medal they deserve. This is done as follows. First, every solution of any contestant will be checked against a marking scheme by four people: their leader, their deputy leader and two independent graders, called coordinators. After all the grading is done, these four get together to compare their scores and come to a consensus.
Of course, we wouldn’t be able to do this alone. For each of the six problems there will be about three to four pairs of coordinators, making for a total of 40 coordinators. All coordinators working on one problem write the marking scheme together. One of them, the Problem Captain, will oversee that this marking scheme is applied consistent across the board during the coordination.
The coordination committee is responsible for recruiting and training the coordinators and organizing the coordination process. So who are we?
“Hi, my name is Johan. I am a postdoctoral researcher in functor calculus at Stockholm University and I like to ride my bike. I used to be a trainer for the Dutch mathematical olympiad team from 2006 till 2012 and it is nice to be back. During EGMO 2020 I will be the Chief Coordinator and I will spring into action if a leader and the coordinators cannot come to a consensus. In a perfect situation I won’t have to do much at all.”
“Hi, my name is Esther. I participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2002 and 2003. After finishing my PhD in mathematics, I switched to software development. I have been a Coordinator in the IMO, EGMO and several Benelux Olympiads. During EGMO 2020 I will be responsible for the logistics and make sure the coordination runs smoothly.”