Stanford Math Tournament 2012
Rules | Frequently Asked Questions | Schedule
The contest portion of the Stanford Math Tournament consists of multiple individual contests and an overall team contest between teams of up to eight students. Students take two individual subject tests in the areas of Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, or Advanced Topics. Alternatively, less experienced students may take a single, longer General Test. Teams participate in a Team Test with short answer questions from various disciplines and a Power Round, a multi-part proof-oriented test.
In addition to the contest, the tournament features a talk by a faculty member of the Stanford mathematics department on an accessible math-related topic of interest. Additional activities are planned for the students in the afternoon before the awards ceremony. The tournament will run all day from 9 AM until 6 PM.
Registration for SMT 2012 is closed.
The registration deadline is January 25, 2012, and the payment deadline is January 27. Registration must be submitted online by the registration deadline and payment must be postmarked by the payment deadline. Registration may still be possible after the deadline, but will be subject to availability and a late fee.
We will send email confirmation of registration submissions and receipt of payment.
Registration must be submitted online by 11:59 PM Pacific time on January 25, and payment must be postmarked by January 27. The fee for teams registered and paid for on time is $10 per person. If a team's registration or payment is late, the team must pay the late registration fee of $15 per person. The late registration deadline is February 1, and the late payment deadline is February 3. If a team registers after February 1 or has not paid by February 3, then the fee rises to $20 per person.
Teams may pay by check, made payable to the Stanford University Mathematical Organization, or cash.
Payment should be mailed to:
Nick Wu
P.O. Box 17430
Stanford, CA 94309
Teams can optionally purchase pizza for lunch and SMT shirts in the registration form. Large pizzas are $12 each and shirts are $10 each. Note that all shirt orders must be received by the registration deadline.
All registration information may be changed freely until the registration deadline. The names of contestants, individual test selections, and all other information that does not affect payment may be changed freely until the day of the contest.
You may make changes to registration information that affect payment after the registration deadline, with some constraints. Adding additional team members will be subject to availability and a late fee for each additional person if the changes are submitted after the registration deadline or the additional payment is sent after the payment deadline. You may not place or change shirt orders after the registration deadline, and you may not place or change pizza orders after February 15. We cannot give refunds for changes made after the registration deadline.
The Team Test is a 50-minute exam consisting of 15 short answer questions, testing material from all areas of high school mathematics.
The Power Round is a 90-minute, multi-part, proof-oriented test. It focuses on a single topic that will be revealed and introduced at the beginning of the test.
The entire team will collaborate on the Team Test and the Power Round. Teams may not collaborate with each other.
The Subject Area Tests are 50-minute individual exams consisting of 10 short answer questions. The subjects offered are Advanced Topics, Algebra, Calculus, and Geometry. The Advanced Topics test covers probability, number theory, and combinatorics. Students may choose any two of the subjects.
The General Test is a 110-minute test that is designed for students with less mathematical background. It is held at the same time as the subject area tests and contains 25 short answer questions.
Students may take two subject tests, or the general test. Participants may not collaborate on the individual tests.
See the common mathematical notions PDF for a list of mathematical conventions used at SMT.
The following may be used during the contest:
Scratch paper will be provided at the contest.
The following may not be used on any portion of the contest:
See the acceptable answer formats PDF.
Changes since SMT 2011:
The weight of the general test towards overall team scores has been reduced. We believe that this change will result in a fairer comparison between scores on the subject tests and scores on the general test. Previously, an individual could have potentially achieved a much higher weighted score by taking the general test instead of two subject tests, even if they were strong enough that the subject tests would have been more suitable for them.
On the individual tests and the Team Test, each problem is worth one point. On the Power Round, problems are weighted, and the point value of each problem will be indicated on the test.
While scoring of each test is straightforward, determining how much each test should contribute to a team's overall score is a more complicated problem. Our system for computing overall team scores has changed significantly since the 2010 Stanford Math Tournament. In 2010 and earlier years, scoring was done without any normalization across different individual tests, thus creating a bias towards easier subject tests and the general test. We now normalize scores to compensate for differences in difficulty between tests. The procedure for determining overall team scores is as follows.
For each test, all scores are divided by the mean of the ten highest scores on that test. The scores on individual tests (both general and subject tests) are then multiplied by 50, and the scores on the team test and power round are multiplied by 400. The resultant scores are referred to as the weighted scores. Note that a score on the easier general test is worth approximately 50% as much as two subject tests.
A team's overall score is the sum of the weighted scores on the team test, the power test, and all of the team members' individual tests. In this way, individual tests can be expected to count for about 50% of a team's overall score, and the team and power tests will each count for about 25%.
If a team chooses not to participate in the team test or the power round, then its overall team score will be the same as if the team received a score of zero on that test. Similarly, if an individual takes only one subject test (instead of two subject tests or the general test), then the individual's contribution to his/her team's overall score will be the same as if the individual received a score of zero on the second subject test.
Anyone tied for a top three position on an individual test will qualify for a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker will consist of three problems in the appropriate subject area and will last for 15 minutes. Participants submit answers to the problems as they solve them, and may answer problems in any order. They will be informed if an answer submission is correct or incorrect when they make the submission.
Resubmissions are allowed, but incorrect submissions incur a penalty if the question is ultimately solved correctly. In addition, to prevent excessive guessing, after a participant makes an incorrect submission, they may not make another submission for 30 seconds.
Ties are first broken in favor of the participant who answers the most questions correctly. If multiple contestants solve the same number of problems, the tie is broken by the time of the last correct submission plus penalty time for incorrect submissions. Each incorrect submission to a problem that a contestant ultimately solved correctly will give the contestant a one minute penalty.
Example of tiebreaker scoring:
Person A wins the tiebreaker because he solved all three tiebreaker problems, more than any of the others. Persons B and C each solved two problems. Person B has a time penalty of 7 minutes: 6 minutes from the last correct submission, plus 1 minute from an incorrect submission on problem 1, which was later solved correctly. Note that no penalty is assessed on the incorrect submission on problem 2 because person B did not eventually solve problem 2 correctly. Person C has a time penalty of 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Person C does not get assessed an a penalty on the incorrect submissions to problem 3 because he did not solve problem 3. Because Person C has a smaller time penalty, Person C gets second in the tiebreaker and person B gets third. Person D comes in fourth, having solved the fewest number of tiebreaker problems.
At the conclusion of each round of the tournament, answers and solutions for that round will be posted (in the Math Building for the individual tests and the Power Round, and in Hewlett Teaching Center for the Team Test). If a contestant believes that an answer key is incorrect, they must submit a protest form at room 381T in the Math Building, or at Hewlett 200 after the Team Test. Protests must be submitted by 3:30 PM. Decisions by the SMT coordinators are final.
Prizes will be awarded to the top-scoring individuals of each test, as well as for the top-scoring teams.
Please note the following changes from SMT 2011: