A perfect paper
The official EGMO 2023 scoreboard lists Maria Drencheva of Bulgaria with 42 points out of 42 and a gold medal. Six problems, seven marks each, nothing dropped anywhere on the paper.
What that means in practice is stricter than a full score on a school examination. Olympiad papers are marked by coordination: each written solution is read against the official argument, and marks are conceded only where the reasoning genuinely holds. A total of 42 means every step of six proofs survived that process.
Fourteen flawless papers
Drencheva's perfect score was one of fourteen recorded in 2023. The group included the whole Chinese team — Shuwen Hu, Lai Yuan, Sihan Su and Yiran Qiu — as well as Fidan Garayeva of Azerbaijan, Nogah Friedman of Israel, Polina Henyk of Ukraine, Isabella Zhu and Vivian Loh of the United States, Xiangyue Nan of Australia and two Turkish contestants.
That is a large cluster at the ceiling, and it changes what the result means. In a year with one perfect paper, the top of the table is a single name. In 2023 it was a crowd, and the distinction between them cannot be drawn from the scores at all.
How unusual that was
The following year's scoreboard shows how much a single paper can change the picture. At EGMO 2024 in Tskaltubo, Georgia, no contestant scored above 41: the highest total in the world belonged to Hannah Fox of the United States, one mark short of perfect, with two contestants sharing second place on 38.
Twelve months apart, the same competition produced fourteen flawless papers and then none. The problems, not the field, account for most of that swing, which is why a perfect score is read as a fact about a year as much as a ranking within it.
The field in Portorož
The 2023 scoreboard lists roughly fifty participating countries, most fielding teams of four, putting the field at about two hundred contestants. Each had been selected through a national process before arriving in Slovenia, so the paper was being sat by the strongest school-age mathematicians their countries could identify.
Against that field, fourteen perfect papers is both a large number and a small proportion: around seven per cent of the room cleared every problem, and the remaining ninety-three per cent did not.
Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.
Passer le test de QI →What is documented — and what is not
The firm facts are the scoreboard's: 42 points out of 42 at EGMO 2023, a gold medal, competing for Bulgaria, at an olympiad held in Portorož, Slovenia. The comparison with 2024 comes from the same organisation's scoreboard for the following year.
There is nothing else. No age, date of birth, school, home town or photograph appears in the source, and no interview or subsequent report has been found. Whether Drencheva competed at other olympiads, and what she has done since 2023, is not documented in the sources gathered here.
| Personne | Pays | Étape | Âge / Donnée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maria Drencheva | Bulgarie | Parfait 42/42 à l'EGMO 2023 | — |
| Junghun Ju | Corée du Sud | Un score parfait à l'International Mathematical Olympiad | — |
| Amber Li | Australie | Trois médailles d'or consécutives à l'EGMO | — |
| Aida Mitroi | Roumanie | Trois médailles d'or consécutives à l'EGMO | — |
| Alisa Volkova | Russie | Elle a résolu cinq des six problèmes et a terminé douzième au niveau mondial | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Perfect score of 42 out of 42 at EGMO 2023 (official scoreboard)
- Competed for Bulgaria; awarded a gold medal
- Fourteen perfect scores in 2023; no score above 41 at EGMO 2024
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No date of birth, age, school or home town in the source
- No interview or photograph published with the result
- No record of other olympiad appearances or of anything after 2023
Questions people ask about Maria Drencheva
What did Maria Drencheva achieve?
A perfect score of 42 out of 42 at EGMO 2023 in Portorož, Slovenia, with a gold medal, competing for Bulgaria.
How many problems are there?
Six, each marked out of seven, for a maximum of 42 points. All of them require written proofs.
How old is Maria Drencheva?
No source in this record gives her age or date of birth. The scoreboard lists names, countries and scores only.
Was a perfect score common that year?
Fourteen contestants scored 42 in 2023. At the following olympiad, in 2024, the highest score in the world was 41.
Is Maria Drencheva on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article was found for her. The official EGMO scoreboard is the primary published record.
How large was the field?
Roughly fifty countries, most with teams of four, giving a field of about two hundred contestants.
Where is Maria Drencheva now?
No source in this record says. The published trail is the 2023 scoreboard entry.
Who else scored 42 in 2023?
Among others, all four Chinese contestants, Fidan Garayeva of Azerbaijan, Nogah Friedman of Israel, Polina Henyk of Ukraine, and Isabella Zhu and Vivian Loh of the United States.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Drencheva’s story?
What was Maria Drencheva's score at EGMO 2023?
Where was EGMO 2023 held?
What was the highest score at the following olympiad, in 2024?
Sources
- EGMO 2023 scoreboard — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2023-04
- EGMO 2024 scoreboard — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2024-04
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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