June 22, 2026
Pencils, panic, and global bragging rights
How it feels to practice for IOAI in Iran
From exam panic to AI dreams as readers zoom in on the global contest angle
TLDR: An Iranian student shared a raw story about cramming for a new AI school competition, surviving a confusing exam, and navigating sketchy-feeling prep courses. In the comments, readers zeroed in on one big point: this wasn’t just local drama, but part of an international contest with much bigger stakes.
An Iranian student’s messy, very human story about stumbling into an artificial intelligence Olympiad — basically a high-stakes school competition for teens — has the energy of a coming-of-age montage with extra exam panic. He signs up late, brings a pen instead of a pencil, thinks the test feels more like an IQ trap than an AI contest, and still squeaks through. Then comes the real drama: endless studying, pricey prep courses, Telegram sales pitches, and that familiar feeling of wondering whether the whole system is built for insiders.
But in the comments, the crowd barely paused for the pencil chaos before locking onto the bigger label behind it all. The strongest reaction was a blunt correction from one reader pointing out that this wasn’t just some local school contest, but the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence. That tiny comment lands like a record scratch: suddenly the story feels less like one student’s awkward exam day and more like a glimpse into how a worldwide competition reaches students far from the usual power centers.
There wasn’t a full-on flame war here, but the mood was classic internet: half earnest fact-check, half “hey, let’s get the name right.” The humor mostly comes from the article itself — the borrowed pencil, the Monty Hall name-drop, the 2x-speed studying chaos — while the comment section delivers the dry, minimalist energy of someone kicking open the door just to say, basically, this is bigger than you think.
Key Points
- •The article is a first-person account of entering and preparing for a newly introduced AI Olympiad in Iran.
- •The writer says the competition required studying statistics, probability, and calculus rather than mainly informatics-style topics.
- •The first exam felt to the writer more like an IQ-style test, and they estimated scoring about 50% before later advancing past the cutoff.
- •After being accepted, the writer adopted a more consistent study routine and used materials including a machine learning book and Andrew Ng’s course.
- •The article describes paid prep courses advertised through Telegram, including pricing in tomans and claims about improving access for students outside the capital.