Academic Competitions

Math Tournament Rules and Guidelines

General Rules

Electronic Devices

No cell phones or other electronic devices may be used in the testing room. Any electronic devices should be turned off or left with a sponsor.

Recording/Copying

All tests and/or question sets are the property of the University of Mississippi and the respective department. Any recording of matches or copying of questions/answers is prohibited except when explicit permission is granted. Impermissible actions by student, coach, and/or parent will result in immediate removal and possible disqualification of team(s).

Testing

Students will follow directions of the facilitator and not begin until explicitly told to do so. Students may not leave and then re-enter the room during testing. Sponsors and/or parents will not be allowed in the testing room during either round.

Sportsmanship/Academic Dishonesty

Students, sponsors/coaches, and parent/guests are expected to maintain sportsmanship-like conduct during the tournament. Any person(s) acting inappropriately will be asked to leave the immediate tournament facilities and warning will be given to the team if necessary. In the event of a second warning, the team will be disqualified from the tournament.

No cheating or plagiarism will be tolerated and will result in immediate disqualification of the student and team from the tournament.

Individual Test

The individual round will be conducted in the morning session and will include no more than thirty multiple choice questions. These problems will cover material from high school courses such as algebra, trigonometry, and geometry but will exclude calculus.

The facilitator will provide pencils, scantron answer sheets, and scratch paper. You may choose to use your own pencils, but these must be #2. Put your name and school on the answer sheet. Mark your answers clearly, as tests will be machine scored. Incorrect answers do not incur any scoring penalty. Your score is the number of correct answers you provide.

Any ties in score will be resolved in the afternoon session. All students tied for a given place will be presented the same problem. The first to provide a correct solution will win the place. If more than two students obtained the same score, successive problems will be presented to those remaining until all places are determined.

Scholarships will be awarded to the top three individual places.

Team Test

The afternoon’s team problem-solving round will consist of up to ten problems, which may be discussed as a team. Questions in this round will assume a similar background as those in the morning session but will require more problem-solving skills and creative thinking. Clear presentation of solutions as well as correctness will be considered in scoring.

Each team will receive four copies of the test questions and a supply of plain paper in a labeled envelope.

Each team will write ONE solution for each problem. The solutions must be clearly marked with the problem number and the team label (matching the label on the envelope). All work submitted for grading should be placed in the team envelope and turned in together.

Scholarships will be awarded to each team member of the top scoring team.