Archives

I maintain problem archives for High School Olympiads:
Physics. [readme]
Astronomy. [readme]

Handouts

Russian geometrical optics
IPhO resources (in Bulgarian)

Olympiad advice

In the last few years many free resources on Olympiad physics have appeared on the internet. Good teachers and a good support network of similarly interested students still help a lot, but we're at a point where anyone can get top honours in an Olympiad if they go about it correctly. I think that the way to succeed is remarkably simple:

• Find a good resource. (textbooks are preferable to lecture notes and Wikipedia)
• Really process it. (engage brain by writing it down, then apply the knowledge by solving problems)
• Repeat. (you'll have to come back to it until it is committed to long-term memory)

I recommend the following path:

• Read this FAQ.
• Work through an introductory book such as Halliday, Resnick and Krane.
• Solve a few hundred problems from easier competitions. I write this with 9^th/10^th grade Russian Olympiads in mind, but F=ma and pre-2014 USAPhO work too.
• Go through Kevin Zhou's handouts.