Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
Does this atlas rank groups by IQ, race or nation?
No. Pathways and evidence stay individual. Scores are browsing aids — never group biological or racial ranks.
What did SMPY change?
Above-level SAT at 12–13 revealed residual differences among the already high, and later adult outcomes in STEM.
Are olympiad medals a gift assay?
They measure contest craft under a syllabus. Coaching density (China, Korea, Russia физмат) is already in the score.
Did Ramanujan prove genes are everything?
He also had the Cambridge correspondence and a tradition of temple-school calculation. A jagged profile, not a racial parable.
Is fast arithmetic the talent?
It is one visible skill. Proof, modelling and spatial insight can be quiet in timed tests.
Do girls “lack” maths talent?
This page will not run that folk story. Participation, stereotype and coaching explain much of historic gaps; we do not rank sexes as essences.
Development here follows Gagné-like honesty: aptitudes, practice and catalysts. Mathematical talent is not a finished essence.
Windows differ by domain. A closed sport window is not a closed writing window. Read the clocks.
Stages
- Play with quantity
Games, not drills only.
Number sense.
- Lift the ceiling
Next year’s sheet.
SMPY spirit.
- Write reasons
Not only answers.
Proof begins.
- Find a peer or mentor
A circle, camp, or teacher.
Catalyst.
- Pick a flavour
Contest, modelling, proof, teaching.
Not one maths.
- Review load
Camps can harvest rather than teach.
Ethics.
Levers
- Above-level tasks — Without them, measurement is fiction.
- Proof talk — Language for being stuck.
- Peer density — IMO cultures are social.
- Spatial cross-training — For some topics.
- Who hears about CTY — The equity lever.
Windows
- Early number sense — Preschool magnitude play.
- Middle-school search — SMPY’s classic ages.
- Specialist secondary — 과학고, физмат, maths lyceums.
- Adult conversion — Proof can start late; some contest windows do not.
Supports
- Johns Hopkins CTY / SMPY-style search — Above-level tests plus courses.
- Korea 과학고 and 영재교육 — State science high schools.
- China USTC 少年班 and olympiad schools — Early university and contest pipes.
- Russia/Soviet физмат lineage — Specialist maths-physics schools.
Mathematical talent: catalysts and windows do the daily work. Destiny talk is the failure mode.
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