Hi I am navi. How are you with MOSC? I heard that you are not selected for IMO, and I believe you are very sad right now. I can understand that and this is normal after knowing you didn't make it this year. I really feel sorry for that. :( I had this feeling before not just once, but twice before I made to IMO. Especially in 2014, I placed 7th, and had a very close score with the 6th placer (only difference wad two points in APMO that year). Unofficially, I should have got a gold medal in IMO, but alas I missed it.. (while he got a HM, no offense to him anyway) Here are a few words that I hope that you will feel better after reading it. I deeply had the same thoughts and feelings as below stated. I think you can think of it this way: if you really don't make to IMO, at least you make genuine math friends in MOSC, that you don't in any other occasions. You learn hard math during MOSC, which you never did in other places. Think about what you gained during the journey. You might doubt whether you are actually able to get into IMO or not. Now ask yourself whether you REALLY want to go to IMO or not. If your answer is yes, then don't question how good you are or whatever. Do your best instead! Never question whether hard work will be fruitful or not: it is always beneficial to be hardworking. If you think you didn't do well enough, then work harder! I personally think that my campmates are smarter than me, so I believe what makes a difference is hardwork. If you really want a proof of this, let me tell you in detail. I suck at combinatorics completely. My friends whom I think they are smarter than me performed well in combinatorics, way better than I do. I tried my best to practice on combinatorics, to no avail it didn't worked for me... probably combinatorics is for smarter people I guess? (Actually this is only true for Russian combi, ISL combi is trainable just like others) But this is just a quater of it! What about the others? I suck at geometry and FE too back in my first camp in 2013. What I first did was tons of practise especially on FE. the result after months of practising on FE is really good, I can solve p5 of IMO 2013 at home. But I am scared of geo that time, so I didn't practise it at all. Result? I can't even solve the p4 of that IMO. I can't even angle chase that time! I told myself I must improve on geo to perform well in camp next year. its hard to concur the fear at once, so I start from the most basic geometry, and gradually to ISL G1 and so on. Trust me that few months between IMO 2013 to December of 2013 (where the new camp for 2014 starts) i only do geometry just to improve it. I also do a lot of geom throughout the year as well as others in 2014, but mainly on geom. Strangely I started to love geo after I can solve like g1 and g2 level problems (that was in camp 2 in 2014 in January) so I decided to give it a try, and I only do geom problem since then, until like May 2014 (if not mistaken). The hard work is fruitful, I manage to get p3 and p4 of IMO 2014. I am extremely happy with able to solve p3. I might sound like bragging, I am sorry if I insult you this way. But really, the point is hardwork never fails you. Please do not lose faith on your own, and have fun with math. If your really find that its stressful to learn math this way, think of your initial aim: getting to IMO. If you are certain you want to make to IMO, then don't let any nessecary thoughts or doubts to interfere this objective. Also if you finally didn't make to IMO, at least you won't regret because you had tried your best and you know how far the maximum you can go. All these memories will surely be your best part of your life, I assure you that. I sincerely hope that you can go to IMO next year! Good luck and keep up the hard work!! Forget your sadness, and be prepared for the next MOSC so that you can do better. There is no time for you to be sad and weak: stay strong to push yourself further!!!! :) And one more thing, APMO 2016 is not easy, getting 9 points and a houranable mention is NO DOUBT a very good achievement. I hope you can do better next time. :)