We had an interview with M.Ganbat, Professor at the Department of Physics of the National University of Mongolia (NUM), Honored Teacher of Mongolia, Chair of the National Physics Olympiad Committee, and one of the coaches of Mongolia’s national team.

Mongolia achieved its best-ever result at the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in Bucaramanga, Colombia, winning four silver medals and one bronze medal. Competing against more than 400 students from 90 countries, all five members of Mongolia’s national team won medals. We spoke with M.Ganbat about the team’s success, the challenges of preparing students, and the future of physics education in Mongolia.

 

Congratulations to you and your team. All five students representing Mongolia won medals. What contributed most to this achievement?

 

Mongolia first participated in the International Physics Olympiad in 1998. Since then, we have continuously studied the competition’s format, the nature of its problems, and the most effective preparation methods. When we first joined, the problems were unfamiliar and extremely difficult. Looking back, questions that once took us hours to understand would now be considered relatively straightforward. Although the core concepts of the Olympiad have not changed significantly, the quality and difficulty of the problems have increased significantly.

This year’s success reflects not only the years of dedication and experience accumulated by our coaches but also the students’ perseverance and hard work. Our students compete in more than 10 national and regional Olympiads each year, constantly strengthening their knowledge and problem-solving skills. That regular practice keeps them well prepared for international competitions.

 

What skills did this year’s theoretical and experimental examinations require?

 

According to the rules, both the theoretical and experimental exams last five hours, meaning students spend 10 hours completing three theoretical problems and one experimental task. Final rankings are determined by the combined score from both sections.

The host country prepares the problems, often consulting international experts. Afterward, team leaders from all participating countries review every problem in detail. A single question may be discussed for five or six hours to ensure its wording, accuracy, and fairness. Once approved by the majority, the problems become the shared responsibility of all team leaders.

Each delegation then translates the problems into its own language before sealing them in envelopes for the students. Once the exams conclude, copies of the students’ answer sheets are distributed to both the judges and the respective team leaders for marking.

Unlike previous Olympiads, this year’s problems emphasized standard physics concepts rather than recent technological breakthroughs or Nobel Prize-winning discoveries. In past competitions, students often had to understand advanced scientific phenomena developed through years of research and solve related questions within hours. Even so, every solution is designed to be achievable using only high school mathematics and physics.

Another challenge was the amount of reading. The examination booklet exceeded 30 pages, and team leaders had only four to five hours to translate and prepare it before the competition.

During the experimental examination, electrical problems caused equipment failures for more than 140 students, including three Mongolian contestants. Fortunately, the issue was resolved properly under the competition’s official procedures.

 

Laboratory experience is essential for physics competitions. How well equipped are Mongolian students for experimental tasks?

 

Unfortunately, Mongolia does not manufacture laboratory equipment for physics education. Most equipment must be imported, and replacement parts are often unavailable when something breaks. As a result, expensive equipment can quickly become unusable.

The Ministry of Education has recently begun discussing ways to produce some experimental equipment domestically. At the same time, researchers at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) have started developing laboratory devices similar to those used in international Olympiads through small-scale production.

Schools also face practical difficulties. Physics classes usually have 40 to 50 students, making laboratory work difficult within a 40-minute lesson. Teachers spend much of the class setting up and collecting equipment, leaving little time for actual experiments. Consequently, practical activities are often reserved only for students preparing for Olympiads.

As a result, physics education in Mongolia has become heavily theory-based. Students receive far less experimental training than they should. Developing international-level laboratory skills in just one or two years is extremely challenging when students have not practiced experiments from an early age.

 

Overloaded with theory, with memorization mistaken for learning

 

Besides academic knowledge, what qualities distinguish students who succeed at the IPhO?

 

Coaching physics students is somewhat like training racehorses. After working with them for a long time, coaches can almost predict who is ready to perform well. As competitions approach, students even develop certain physical habits while concentrating. Similar patterns are often seen among students from countries such as China, Japan and South Korea where intensive study is common.

However, being quiet or bookish alone does not lead to success in physics. Strong mathematical ability is essential. Many students who excel in physics also compete successfully in mathematics Olympiads. Successful competitors think quickly, work accurately, stay organized, and possess strong experimental skills. We regularly assess our students to identify their weaknesses and help them improve.

More broadly, Mongolia’s education system still has important shortcomings. Schools place too much emphasis on memorization, reading, and repeating information rather than encouraging students to understand concepts deeply, think critically, and develop original ideas. We tend to judge students by how well they memorize theory, when deep analytical thinking is far more valuable.

Students also need to become independent learners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolian students actually performed better than many of their international peers because they continued studying on their own. They searched for international Olympiad problems online, practiced independently, improved their foreign language skills, and continued learning even without constant supervision from teachers.

 

How do you prepare students mentally and physically for such demanding competitions, especially considering challenges like jet lag and unfamiliar environments?

 

This is probably our weakest area. We focus heavily on solving problems and evaluating answers but pay far less attention to students’ mental well-being. A student who performs confidently during practice may become extremely nervous during the actual competition. Competition rules prevent coaches from meeting students throughout the examination period, so we cannot monitor whether they have rested well or how they are coping psychologically. We only see them again at the closing ceremony.

Some students become so anxious that they tremble during the examination. In several cases, nervousness has caused students to connect laboratory equipment incorrectly and even damage it.

This is clearly an area where we need improvement. Professional athletes often work with sports psychologists, giving them an advantage in managing pressure. We should consider learning from the sports community and incorporating psychological preparation into our Olympiad training so that our students are not only academically prepared but also mentally ready to perform at their best.

 

Still can’t select national team members from across the nation

 

This year, students from Orkhon and Darkhan-Uul provinces joined the national team and achieved excellent results. What is still missing when it comes to identifying and developing talented students outside Ulaanbaatar?

 

Two of our students traveled regularly to Ulaanbaatar for training for nearly three years. One student from Orkhon Province returned home only during the final year of high school in order to graduate but remained in close contact with us throughout.

The preparation provided by an ordinary secondary school alone is not enough to produce an international Olympiad medalist. The role of school teachers is to identify gifted students early and guide them to us from around the ninth grade onward so they can receive specialized training.

The reality is that we are still unable to identify and select Mongolia’s national physics team from every corner of the country. For many years, most team members came from only a handful of schools in Ulaanbaatar, such as Sant School and Shine Mongol School, where highly experienced teachers are available. This year, however, students from rural provinces earned places on the team, which is a very encouraging sign. I believe that in the future we will have much better opportunities to discover talented students nationwide.

 

What should Mongolia focus on over the next five to 10 years to maintain this level of success and encourage Olympiad winners to build their careers in science and technology at home?

 

We should not judge the situation based solely on the results of a single competition. Behind every Olympiad medal lies the broader picture of public education, students’ overall abilities, university entrance examinations, teachers’ salaries, and many other social issues.

The students who competed this year were coached by G.Munkhbayar and M.Otgonbaatar for three years. They worked toward winning gold medals, but unfortunately missed that goal because of very small mistakes. That is why we need more teachers capable of preparing students at this level, while also improving their working conditions and addressing at least some of the challenges they face.

Unfortunately, some university administrators still misunderstand Olympiad coaching. They treat teachers attending international competitions as though they are simply traveling rather than carrying out an important educational responsibility. Some even regard writing national Olympiad problems as something that is not real academic work. I believe university professors should serve their country in every possible way, yet there are still administrators who criticize or discourage these efforts.

There are also teachers who volunteer to accompany Olympiad teams despite having no role in training the students. Preparing an international competitor is never the work of one individual. It requires four or five years of coordinated effort from an entire team to develop a student’s ability to solve problems at this level. More people need to recognize and appreciate that commitment.

Teachers also face financial difficulties. Recently, I have been conducting online training for 30 to 40 physics teachers. After finishing work, they log in to my classes while picking up their children from kindergarten or school. Some attend with one child in their arms and another standing beside them, while their children cry in the background. Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to expect teachers to produce world-class scientific results. Instead of placing constant pressure on them, we should support their determination to continue learning.

Many teachers genuinely want to improve themselves. Yet as soon as they develop new skills, schools often assign them unrelated technical work, such as fixing computer viruses or using artificial intelligence to prepare administrative documents. Others eventually leave for private schools or establish their own learning centers because they need better salaries.

Another major challenge is retaining talented young people in Mongolia. Four years ago, we surveyed former International Olympiad participants and found that more than 90 percent hoped to study in the United States. Prestigious universities such as MIT actively seek to enroll these students. After graduating, many go on to work at institutions such as NASA, Harvard University, and other world-leading research organizations.

It is encouraging that some have begun returning to Mongolia to contribute through teaching and research projects. However, Mongolia still lacks effective incentives to encourage them to build long-term careers at home. Low salaries, limited research funding, and inadequate working conditions remain significant obstacles.

Saudi Arabia provides an interesting example. Many of its universities recruit leading American scientists by offering outstanding laboratories, research teams, housing, and salaries far above international standards. Their university leaders openly discuss investing in emerging fields such as neuroscience, brain science, and space research, believing that future Nobel Prize winners will emerge from these efforts. Rather than relying solely on domestic talent, they invite world-class researchers while simultaneously training their own scientists.

Physics remains the foundation of modern technological development. Every breakthrough in artificial intelligence, mathematics, or information technology is ultimately built upon advances in the physical sciences. Some academics continue comparing today’s education with what was taught decades ago, recalling the way physics was taught when they themselves were students. But those memories belong to 60 or 70 years ago. Education must evolve alongside society.

Compared with the entrance examination problems we solved as students, today’s Olympiad questions are 10 to 20 times more challenging. Therefore, it is unfair to claim that Mongolia’s education system has simply declined or that everything was better in the past.

As a researcher, I have spent my career studying scientific work produced by scholars from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States, and many other countries. That is the nature of scientific research. We should adopt what is valuable while discarding what is not. Yet there are still professors and educators who rarely engage with modern developments but continue criticizing today’s education system and claiming that Mongolian education is collapsing. Of course, there are shortcomings, but we should not allow an entire field of science to fall decades behind because of outdated thinking.

 

Chinese students succeed through hard work

 

At what age should children’s interest and talent in physics be nurtured? What advice would you give parents and teachers?

 

I have not specifically researched talent development, so I cannot give a definitive answer. However, in many countries, specialized science education begins as early as kindergarten.

China, for example, has numerous specialized schools. The most talented students are selected through several stages, and after years of intensive training they perform with remarkable precision. Personally, I would not say Chinese students succeed simply because of natural talent. Their achievements are primarily the result of extraordinary hard work.

Russian students, on the other hand, often demonstrate exceptional natural ability. During the Asian Physics Olympiad held in Mongolia in 2023, I marked papers from both the Russian and Chinese teams. The solutions submitted by the eight Chinese contestants were almost identical, reflecting the consistency of their specialized training. The Russian students, however, approached the same problems in completely different ways, demonstrating originality and creativity.

At the awards ceremony, I raised the hand of one Russian student and told him, “You defeated me. I spent two months designing that problem without enough sleep, yet you managed to outperform both me and our entire team.” That student has since gone on to represent Russia at international competitions and is now a university student. This shows how effectively Russia identifies and develops talented young people.

More valuable than the natural resources beneath Mongolia’s soil is the talent that exists within the minds of Mongolian children. Society’s responsibility is to discover that potential, develop it into scientific expertise, and inspire young people to use their abilities for the benefit of their country.

We cannot celebrate Olympiad winners today and forget them tomorrow. The medals they win are important, but what matters even more is how we continue supporting these young people throughout their careers and enable them to contribute to Mongolia’s future.