Ask HN: Are math contests more about attracting top teachers than anything else?

High school math contests seem to benefit only a few gifted students.

But maybe their real purpose is to make teaching math more appealing to very smart teachers.

This, in turn, makes the school look good in the community.

And perhaps those gifted students would have done fine without the contests anyway.

In other words, high school math contests mostly benefit smart math teachers and schools that want a reputation for academic excellence.

For most students, math contests don’t provide much benefit if any.