A brief history of the McGill Physics Olympiad Program (MPOP)

It started in 2010…

I was a middle school student in Iran. Passionate about physics, I wanted to participate in the International Physics Olympiads (IPhO).

IPhO is a highly competitive annual contest that brings together students from all around the world to solve highly challenging physics problems involving theory and experiments. Five students from each participating country are selected to compete in IPhO. It is left to each country to figure out a way to choose those five representatives. Some countries have multiple qualifying exams, and preparation for IPhO can take years. Some countries don’t receive any funding and can only afford one qualifying exam.

To my surprise, Iran was in the former category and Canada was in the latter.

Upon immigration to Canada around 2012, I was shocked at the lack of resources offered to prepare students for IPhO (or any other Olympiad). Living in Toronto, there was a program hosted by University of Toronto, but it discontinued due to lack of funding. There was also the Olympiad School, which hosted weekly sessions on weekends, but they charged exorbitant rates.

I decided to soldier on and prepare on my own. I studied textbooks, solved problems, and did as many past exams as I could.

For four years, that’s all I did.

Until th