The perfect paper
EGMO sets six problems across two days, each marked out of seven, for a maximum of 42. Partial credit is normal and a perfect paper is not: most medallists lose points somewhere, usually on the hardest problem of each day. The official EGMO 2023 scoreboard records Nan's six scores as sevens across the board, a total of 42, a gold medal and a share of first place.
She was not alone at the top. The scoreboard shows a group of contestants tied on 42 that year, which is itself unusual and says something about the 2023 paper as well as about the people who solved it. The event was held in Portoroz, Slovenia, with a scoreboard listing more than 200 contestants from roughly 50 countries and regions.
Three golds, three cities
The olympiad is annual and the Australian team returns each spring. The official scoreboards record Nan winning a gold medal in 2024 as well, and again at EGMO 2025 in Prishtina, Kosovo, where she scored 29 and finished 14th overall.
That 2025 line is worth reading carefully. A score of 29 out of 42 is a long way below a perfect paper, and 14th is a long way below a share of first. It is also still a gold medal, because EGMO awards medals by rank bands across a very large field rather than against a fixed threshold. Three golds in three years is the documented pattern, not three perfect papers.
What EGMO is
The European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad began as a European competition and has long since stopped being only European: the scoreboards used here list contestants from around 50 countries and regions, Australia among them, each fielding a team of up to four. Australia is one of a number of non-European nations invited to compete.
The format mirrors the International Mathematical Olympiad. Two papers, three problems each, four and a half hours per paper, and no calculators or reference material. The problems are drawn from algebra, combinatorics, geometry and number theory, and are written to be solvable with school-level tools and almost no school-level ideas. A seven is awarded only for a complete and correct solution, which is why a line of six sevens is the rarest thing on any olympiad scoreboard.
What is documented, and what is not
The EGMO scoreboards are primary documents and they are precise: name, country, per-problem scores, total, rank and medal. Everything stated above comes from them. Nan appears on them under both Xiangyue Nan and the form Xiangyue (Laura) Nan.
They contain nothing else. Her date of birth, age, home city, school and mathematical training are not stated in any source used here. Whether she has competed at the International Mathematical Olympiad, what she studies now, and what she plans to do next are all undocumented in this material. No interview with her appears among these sources.
Vinte perguntas, oito minutos no relógio e um percentil medido contra todos os que já fizeram. Sem cadastro.
Fazer o teste de QI →How rare a perfect score is
In a field of more than 200 contestants, a handful of perfect papers is a normal year and none at all is not unusual. The reason is structural: olympiad problems are set so that the final problem on each day defeats almost everyone, and a single unjustified step in an otherwise correct argument costs points at the coordination table where scripts are marked.
Scoring 42 therefore means more than being fast. It means six complete, rigorous, written arguments produced under time pressure, each of which survived scrutiny by two independent sets of markers. Nan did that in 2023, and then kept returning: gold in 2024, gold again in 2025. The scoreboards are the whole story, and they are enough of one.
| Pessoa | País | Marco | Idade / Dado |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laura Nan | Austrália | Seis problemas, sete pontos cada, nenhum erro: o EGMO perfeito de Laura Nan | — |
| Junghun Ju | Coreia do Sul | Uma pontuação perfeita na Olimpíada Internacional de Matemática | — |
| Amber Li | Austrália | Três medalhas de ouro consecutivas no EGMO | — |
| Aida Mitroi | Romênia | Três medalhas de ouro consecutivas no EGMO | — |
| Alisa Volkova | Rússia | Ela resolveu cinco dos seis problemas diretamente e terminou em décimo segundo no mundo | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Perfect 42 out of 42 at EGMO 2023 in Portoroz, Slovenia, with a gold medal and a share of first place
- Per-problem scores of 7 7 7 7 7 7 on the official 2023 scoreboard
- A further gold medal at EGMO 2024
- Gold at EGMO 2025 in Prishtina, Kosovo, with 29 points and 14th place overall
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Age, date of birth, home city and school are not stated in any source used
- Her mathematical training and coaching are not documented here
- Whether she has competed at the International Mathematical Olympiad is not stated in these sources
- Nothing documents what she is studying or doing now
Questions people ask about Laura Nan
How old is Laura Nan?
No source used here gives her age or date of birth. The EGMO scoreboards record scores and medals only.
What did Laura Nan do?
She scored a perfect 42 out of 42 at the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad in 2023, sharing first place, and won further EGMO gold medals in 2024 and 2025.
What is a perfect score at EGMO?
Forty-two. The olympiad sets six problems worth seven points each, so 7 7 7 7 7 7 is the maximum possible line on the scoreboard.
Is Laura Nan the same person as Xiangyue Nan?
Yes. The official scoreboards list her as Xiangyue Nan and in the form Xiangyue (Laura) Nan, competing for Australia.
Did she win EGMO outright?
She shared first place in 2023 with a group of other contestants who also scored 42. EGMO ranks by total score, and ties at the top are recorded as such.
Is Laura Nan on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on her was found among the sources used for this page.
Where is Laura Nan now?
Not documented. The scoreboards say nothing about where she studies or what she has done since EGMO 2025.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Laura’s story?
What is the maximum possible score at EGMO?
Where was EGMO 2023 held?
What medal did Laura Nan win at EGMO 2025?
Sources
- EGMO 2023 scoreboard — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2023-04
- EGMO 2024 scoreboard — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2024-04
- EGMO 2025 scoreboard — European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (official), 2025-04
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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