TITLE: Is being good at mathematic contests necessary to pursue a career in mathematics or physics?
QUESTION [35 upvotes]: I am extremely poor in solving a problem quickly, which leaves me doing badly in olympiads and other contests. But, if I just don’t give up on a problem, no matter how much time it takes, I usually end up solving it. To have a future in mathematics or physics, is it necessary for me to excel at contests, because these days children excelling at contests have an advantage over those who don’t (not complete advantage, but advantage nonetheless)?

REPLY [4 votes]: Terence Tao once wrote a blog post on this: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/advice-on-mathematics-competitions/
The summary is what others have been saying here: no, because Olympiad-style problems require more cleverness and less patience than research problems:

While individual steps in the solution might be able to be finished
  off quickly by someone with Olympiad training, the majority of the
  solution is likely to require instead the much more patient and
  lengthy process of reading the literature, applying known techniques,
  trying model problems or special cases, looking for counterexamples,
  and so forth.