Named in honor of Benoit Mandelbrot, the Mandelbrot Competition was a mathematics competition founded by Sam Vandervelde, Richard Rusczyk and Sandor Lehoczky that operated from 1990 to 2019. It allowed high school students to compete individually and in four-person teams. [1]
The Mandelbrot was a "correspondence competition," meaning that the competition was sent to a school's coach and students competed at their own school on a predetermined date. [2] Individual results and team answers were then sent back to the contest coordinators. The most notable aspects of the Mandelbrot competition were the difficulty of the problems (much like the American Mathematics Competition and harder American Invitational Mathematics Examination problems) and the proof-based team round.[ citation needed ] Many past medalists at the International Mathematics Olympiad first tried their skills on the Mandelbrot Competition.[ citation needed ]
The Mandelbrot Competition was started by Sam Vandervelde, Richard Rusczyk, and Sandor Lehoczky while they were undergraduates in the early 1990s. Vandervelde ran the competition until its completion in 2019. Rusczyk now manages Art of Problem Solving Inc. and Lehoczky enjoys a successful career on Wall Street.
The individual competition consisted of seven questions of varying value, worth a total of 14 points, that students had 40 minutes to answer. The team competition was a proof-based competition, where many questions were asked about a particular situation, and a team of four students was given 60 minutes to answer. [3]
The Mandelbrot Competition had two divisions, referred to as National and Regional. Questions at the National level were more difficult than those at the Regional level, but generally had overlap or concerned similar topics. For example, in the individual competition, the National competition would remove some of the easier Regional questions, and add some harder questions. In the team competition, the topic would be the same but the National level would be given fewer hints.
Results would be published after each annual iteration of the contest, and in its final iteration, the results were published online with School leaderboards and Individual leaderboards divided by region and national. However, since mandelbrot.org is not maintained any more, it can only be visited here.
Soviet Student Olympiad was an annual set of contests for students in USSR. There were two separate multi-round competitions every year: for higher education (universities) and general education. Both competitions had several rounds, and winners from lower rounds would go to the next round. Not only individual members, but teams were awarded too. The main difference between two Olympiads was that the school one had separate threads for every grade, while the university one was for all students.
The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics that determine the United States of America's team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The selection process takes place over the course of roughly five stages. At the last stage, the US selects six members to form the IMO team. The 1994 US IMO Team is the first of the only two teams ever to achieve a perfect score (all six members earned perfect marks), and is colloquially known as the "dream team".
The American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), is an annual, national high school mathematics team competition held simultaneously at four locations in the United States: the University of Iowa, Penn State, University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Past sites have included San Jose State University, Rutgers University, UNLV, Duke University, and University of Georgia.
Mu Alpha Theta (ΜΑΘ) is the United States mathematics honor society for high school and two-year college students. In June 2015, it served over 108,000 student members in over 2,200 chapters in the United States and in 20 foreign countries. Its main goals are to inspire keen interest in mathematics, develop strong scholarship in the subject, and promote the enjoyment of mathematics in high school and two year college students. The name is a rough transliteration of math into Greek. Buchholz High School won first place in 2022 for the 14th time in the annually held national convention.
Mathematical Kangaroo is an international mathematics competition in over 77 countries. There are six levels of participation, ranging from grade 1 to grade 12. The competition is held annually on the third Thursday of March. The challenge consists of problems in multiple-choice form that are not standard notebook problems and come from a variety of topics. Besides basic computational skills, they require inspiring ideas, perseverance, creativity and imagination, logical thinking, and other problem-solving strategies. Often there are small stories, intriguing problems, and surprising results, which encourage discussions with friends and family.
The New York State Mathematics League (NYSML) competition was originally held in 1973 and has been held annually in a different location each year since. It was founded by Alfred Kalfus. The American Regions Math League competition is based on the format of the NYSML competition. The current iteration contains four sections: the team round, power question, individual round, and a relay. These are done in competition in that order. All of these rounds are done without a calculator. Each individual team can have up to fifteen students, which is the usual amount per team. Like ARML, it has banned the user of calculators beginning in the 2009 contest.
Richard Rusczyk is the founder and chief executive officer of Art of Problem Solving Inc. and a co-author of the Art of Problem Solving textbooks. Rusczyk was a national Mathcounts participant in 1985, and he won the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) in 1989. He is one of the co-creators of the Mandelbrot Competition, and the director of the USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS). He also founded the San Diego Math Circle.
The Texas Math and Science Coaches Association or TMSCA is an organization for coaches of academic University Interscholastic League teams in Texas middle schools and high schools, specifically those that compete in mathematics and science-related tests.
The Australian Mathematics Competition is a mathematics competition run by the Australian Maths Trust for students from year 3 up to year 12 in Australia, and their equivalent grades in other countries. Since its inception in 1976 in the Australian Capital Territory, the participation numbers have increased to around 600,000, with around 100,000 being from outside Australia, making it the world's largest mathematics competition.
A math circle is a learning space where participants engage in the depths and intricacies of mathematical thinking, propagate the culture of doing mathematics, and create knowledge. To reach these goals, participants partake in problem-solving, mathematical modeling, the practice of art, and philosophical discourse. Some circles involve competition, while others do not.
This article describes the selection process, by country, for entrance into the International Mathematical Olympiad.
HMMT is an annual high school math competition that started in 1998. The location of the tournament, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, alternates between Harvard University and MIT. The contest is written and staffed almost entirely by Harvard and MIT students.
Samuel Kendrick Vandervelde is a mathematician who, along with Sandor Lehoczky and Richard Rusczyk, is most notable for creating the Mandelbrot Competition, and being listed first under "Thanks" in the mathematical textbook The Art of Problem Solving.
Number Sense is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. It is also a competition held by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, using the same rules as the UIL. It is one of the UIL's oldest academic competitions: the first state title was awarded in 1943.
Calculator Applications is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Texas, USA. It is also a competition held by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, using the same rules as the UIL.
Accounting is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. The contest began in the 1986-87 scholastic year. Accounting is designed to test students' understanding of general accounting principles and practices used in the business environment.
Mathematics is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League. It is also a competition held by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, using the same rules as the UIL.
Computer science is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League (UIL).
Additional Mathematics is a qualification in mathematics, commonly taken by students in high-school. It features a range of problems set out in a different format and wider content to the standard Mathematics at the same level.
The United States of America Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS) is a mathematics competition open to all United States students in or below high school.