Mathcounts

Last updated
Mathcounts
Formation1983;41 years ago (1983)
TypeFoundation
PurposeTo provide engaging math programs to US middle school students of all ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes about math and problem solving. [1]
Headquarters Alexandria, Virginia
Location
Executive Director
Kristen Chandler [2]
Co-founder
Donald G. Weinert [2]
Main organ
National Staff
Website mathcounts.org

Mathcounts, stylized as MATHCOUNTS, is a non-profit organization that provides grades 6-8 extracurricular mathematics programs in all U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and U.S. Virgin Islands. Its mission is to provide engaging math programs for middle school students of all ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes about math and problem solving.

Contents

In Mathcounts, there are four different rounds. There is the Team Round, Target Round, Sprint Round, and Countdown Round. You are only permitted to use a calculator in the Team Round and Target Round. Calculators are not permitted for the Sprint or Lightning Round. The Lightning Round has around 30 questions and aims to test how well you can compute without a calculator. The question get progressively harder on that round. In the Target Round, You are given questions in sets of two four times and are given around six minutes to complete each set. The difficulty is more scattered on this round than the Lightning Round. For the Chapter Competition, in the Team Round, the top four people from your school are on the school’s team and three others compete individually for the All-Star Team. The All-Star Team consists of the top 4 testers from various schools and they create the team that can compete at State Competition. There are ten questions and they are challenging. Only the elected captain from each school can write the answer. In the Countdown Round, the top ten testers compete based on their score. You get one point per each Lightning Round question you answer correctly and two for each Target Round question. The tenth-place scorer competes against the ninth-place scorer and if they win they go against the eighth-place scorer and so on till a winner is determined. The Top Ten From Chapter move on to State and the Top Five from State move on to Nationals. members from the top three teams will move to the next higher level competition. [3]

Mathcounts also provides numerous math resources for schools and the general public. [4]

Topics covered include geometry, counting, probability, number theory, and algebra.

History

Mathcounts was started in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and CNA Insurance to increase middle school interest in mathematics. [5] The first national-level competition was held in 1984. [1] The Mathcounts Competition Series spread quickly in middle schools, and today it is the best-known middle school mathematics competition. [6] In 2007 Mathcounts launched the National Math Club as a non-competitive alternative to the Competition Series. In 2011 Mathcounts launched the Math Video Challenge Program, which was discontinued in 2023. [7] [1]

2020 was the only year since 1984 in which a national competition was not held, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The "MATHCOUNTS Week" event featuring problems from the 2020 State Competition was held on the Art of Problem Solving website as a replacement. [8] The 2021 National Competition was held online. [9]

Current sponsors include RTX Corporation, U.S. Department of Defense STEM, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, National Society of Professional Engineers, 3M, Texas Instruments, Art of Problem Solving, Bentley Systems, Carina Initiatives, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, CNA Financial, Google, Brilliant, and Mouser Electronics. [5]

Competition Series

The Competition Series is divided into four levels: school, chapter, state, and national. Students progress to each level in the competition based on performance at the previous level. As the levels progress, the problems become more challenging. [10] Each level has many rounds, always including a Sprint Round (30 questions, 40 minutes) and a Target Round (4 pairs of harder problems with calculator use, 6 minutes each pair).

All students are either school-based competitors or non-school competitors ("NSCs"). Most students participate through their schools, starting with a school-level competition. A student whose school is not participating in the Competition Series starts at the chapter level as an NSC, competing individually. [10]

School level

Coaches of each school select up to 12 students from their school to advance to the chapter competition, with 4 of them competing on the official school team. The rest compete individually. [10]

Chapter level

All qualifying students compete individually. Students on an official school team also compete as a team. The Countdown Round is optional and can either be used to determine top individuals or as an unofficial round. The top teams and individuals advance to the state competition. [10] The exact number of qualifiers varies by region. [11]

State level

All qualifying students compete individually. Students on a qualifying school team also compete as a team. The Countdown Round is optional and can either be used to determine top individuals or as an unofficial round. The top 4 individuals qualify for the national competition. The coach of the winning school team is the coach for the state team. [10] Some states have universities within the state that give scholarships to the top individuals of the state. [12]

National level

President Barack Obama meets award recipients of the 2010 Mathcounts National Competition in the Oval Office Monday, June 28, 2010. Mathcounts2010.jpg
President Barack Obama meets award recipients of the 2010 Mathcounts National Competition in the Oval Office Monday, June 28, 2010.

Qualifying students and coaches receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the national competition. The competition typically lasts 3–4 days on Mother's Day weekend. The coach of the state team is the supervisor for the team. The students compete individually for the title of national champion. They also compete as a team to represent their state. [10]

The 12 highest scoring individuals advance to the Countdown Round. The winner of this round is declared the National Champion. [13]

Scholarships and prizes are awarded to the top individuals and top state teams. [13] In the past, prizes have included trips to Space Camp or to the White House to meet the current President of the United States. [13] [14]

National Math Club

In addition to the Competition Series program, students can also participate in the National Math Club program.

The National Math Club program allows schools and non-school groups to start a math club for free. Upon registering, club leaders earn free online access to dozens of games, explorations, and problem sets.

Clubs that meet at least five times during the program year can achieve Silver Level Status, and clubs that complete a creative and collaborative project can achieve Gold Level Status. Clubs that achieve Silver Level and Gold Level can earn prizes and recognition. [15]

Other programs

Alumni scholarships

Each year, Mathcounts awards two types of scholarships to multiple alumni who participated in at least one of the Mathcounts programs during middle school. The Mathcounts Alumni Scholarship is awarded to alumni whose experience in Mathcounts was extremely influential, and the Community Coaching Scholarship is awarded to alumni who start Mathcounts programs at underserved schools. [16]

Math Video Challenge

In 2011, Mathcounts started the Reel Math Challenge (later renamed to the Math Video Challenge). The Math Video Challenge program allowed students in teams of 4 to create a video that explained the solution to a problem from the Mathcounts School Handbook in a real-world scenario. The program was discontinued in 2023, but a similar video project opportunity is offered through the National Math Club. [17]

Competition winners

Below is a table documenting each year's winning individual, winning state team and coach, and the location of the national competition.

YearIndividual winnerState-team winnerWinning-state coachLocationRefs
1984Michael Edwards, Texas Virginia (1)Joan Armistead Washington, D.C. [18] [19]
1985Timothy Kokesh, Oklahoma Florida Burt Kaufman Washington, D.C.
1986Brian David Ewald, Florida California (1) Washington, D.C. [19]
1987Russell Mann, Tennessee New York (1)Robert C. Bieringer Washington, D.C. [19] [20]
1988Andrew Schultz, Illinois New York (2) Washington, D.C. [19] [21]
1989Albert Kurz, Pennsylvania North Carolina Barbara Sydnor Washington, D.C. [19] [22]
1990Brian Jenkins, Arkansas Ohio Washington, D.C. [19] [23]
1991Jonathan L. Weinstein, Massachusetts Alabama Cindy Breckenridge Washington, D.C. [19] [24]
1992Andrei C. Gnepp, Ohio California (2) Washington, D.C. [19] [25]
1993Carleton Bosley, Kansas Kansas Washington, D.C. [26]
1994William O. Engel, Illinois Pennsylvania (1)Matt Zipin Washington, D.C. [27]
1995Richard Reifsnyder, Kentucky Indiana (1) Washington, D.C. [28]
1996Alexander Schwartz, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (2) Washington, D.C. [29]
1997Zhihao Liu, Wisconsin Massachusetts (1)Heidi Johnson Washington, D.C. [30]
1998Ricky Liu, Massachusetts Wisconsin Washington, D.C. [31] [32]
1999Po-Ru Loh, Wisconsin Massachusetts (2)Evagrio Mosca Washington, D.C. [33]
2000Ruozhou Jia, Illinois California (3) Washington, D.C. [34]
2001Ryan Ko, New Jersey Virginia (2)Barbara Burnett Washington, D.C. [35]
2002Albert Ni, Illinois California (4)Thomas Yin Chicago, Illinois [36]
2003Adam Hesterberg, Washington California (5)Pallavi Shah Chicago, Illinois [37]
2004Gregory Gauthier, Illinois Illinois Steve Ondes Washington, D.C. [38] [39]
2005Neal Wu, Louisiana Texas (1)Jeff Boyd Detroit, Michigan [40] [41]
2006Daesun Yim, New Jersey Virginia (3)Barbara Burnett Arlington, Virginia [42]
2007Kevin Chen, Texas Texas (2)Jeff Boyd Fort Worth, Texas [43] [44]
2008Darryl Wu, Washington Texas (3)Jeff Boyd Denver, Colorado [45]
2009Bobby Shen, Texas Texas (4)Jeff Boyd Orlando, Florida [46]
2010Mark Sellke, Indiana California (6)Donna Phair [47] Orlando, Florida [48]
2011Scott Wu, Louisiana California (7)Vandana Kadam [49] Washington, D.C. [50]
2012Chad Qian, Indiana Massachusetts (3)Josh Frost Orlando, Florida [51]
2013Alec Sun, Massachusetts Massachusetts (4)Josh Frost Washington, D.C. [52]
2014Swapnil Garg, California California (8)David Vaughn Orlando, Florida [53]
2015Kevin Liu, Indiana Indiana (2)Trent Tormoehlen Boston, Massachusetts [54]
2016Edward Wan, Washington Texas (5)Isil Nal Washington, D.C. [55]
2017Luke Robitaille, Texas Texas (6)Isil Nal Orlando, Florida [56]
2018Luke Robitaille, Texas Texas (7)Isil Nal Washington, D.C. [57]
2019Daniel Mai, Massachusetts Massachusetts (5)Josh Frost Orlando, Florida [13]
2020No national competition held due to COVID-19 pandemic [8]
2021Marvin Mao, New Jersey New Jersey (1)Stephanie CucinellaOnline [58] [59]
2022Allan Yuan, Alabama New Jersey (2)Marybeth Gakos Washington, D.C. [60]
2023Channing Yang, Texas Texas (8)Andrea Smith Orlando, Florida [61]
2024Benjamin Jiang, Florida Texas (9)Hui Quan Washington, D.C. [62]

See also

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