Every Journey starts with a single step, and it's no different here. I sat the first round of the British Physics Olympiad, and did quite well, so I sat the second. The second round seemed daunting (at the time - no exam could be scary after IPhO!) at three and a half hours, but I muddled through it (a note to anyone doing BPhO: read very carefully the instructions about how to do the paper, and which questions to do) and later found out I was in the top 50 in the country!
That was great, but it also meant work for me. I was sent problems to try, and then given another paper to sit. After that, I found out I had progressed to the top 15, and had even more problems to do. At easter of 2004 I went on a 3 day training camp in Abingdon, which was great fun. I met the other top 15 people (except Andrew, who didn't find out because his physics teachers were not at school, and so didn't come, and nobody knew whether he'd got lost, been abducted by aliens, or simply decided he'd rather spend 3 days in bed). At the end of this, there was an experimental exam and a short theretical exam. I was laughing for half of the experimental (not literally...it was an exam...) because I had performed a very similar laser diffraction experiment in my Advanced Higher project.
After a week I recieved a phone call from Cyril Isenberg, secretary of BPhO. My heart jumped into my mouth and started to beat faster (thought not as fast as the butterflies in my stomach...), but nervousness turned into delight and surprise as I found out I was in! We then had the presentation ceremony and another (very short) training weekend, before progressing to the event it's self.
Qualifying