Rules

Membership

Any high school that agrees to abide by these rules will be admitted during any semester, before the first contest, upon application to the NYCIML executive committee.

Division structure and problem difficulty

There are four divisions of the NYCIML: the Soph-Frosh, Junior, Senior A and Senior B divisions.  There will be five Senior meets, three Junior meets and three Soph-Frosh meets each semester.
Senior division problems may involve any topic from precalculus mathematics. Questions in the Senior B division will be substantially less difficult than those in the Senior A division.  No school may compete in both Senior divisions in the same semester.
Junior division problems will involve no mathematics beyond that taught in Math A and Math B* of the New York State Regents syllabus.
Soph-Frosh division problems will involve no mathematics beyond that taught in Math A*.
Note that the contests in all divisions will require problem-solving skills and creativity beyond what is typically required to answer textbook-style problems.

Meet structure, tie-breaking and dropped problems

Each meet will consist of six problems, given in three sets of two problems each. There will be no tie-breaking contests. If a problem must be dropped for any reason (as decided by the appeals judge or judges) then a substitute MAY be proposed on a later contest. If this is not feasible, no replacement will be made, and no credit will be given for any answer to the discarded problem.

Team composition and number of teams per school

A team will consist of five or more students.  During a meet, each team will be represented by exactly five of its members for each pair of problems.  The five students representing the team may be changed between pairs of questions.  The students representing the team on a given pair of questions must be chosen BEFORE the questions are administered.
Any school may enter as many separate teams as it wishes in the Soph-Frosh division, Junior division and in either one (but not both) of the two Senior divisions. Schools that enter more than one team in a given division must name the teams distinctively, for identification purposes.
Any school that captures the title in the Senior B division for two consecutive semesters may not field a Senior B team for the next two semesters, but must compete in the Senior A division if it chooses to field a senior team.

Eligibility of Students and Number of Awards

  • Any student enrolled in a member school is eligible to participate in any contest in the Senior divisions.
  • Any student enrolled in a member school that does not field a senior team may participate in any contest in the Junior division. Schools that field a senior team may not allow a student in his or her senior year to participate on a junior team. Any student not yet in his or her senior year may participate on a junior team.
  • Only students taking Math A* in the fall of the school year may participate in the Soph-Frosh division during both the fall and spring semesters.
  • A student may compete officially for at most one team each semester.  Thus, a student who has competed as a member of one team may not also compete as a member of another team in the same semester.
  • However, a student who has officially competed for a team may be placed on a different team in a following semester.
  • A school may win awards in the Senior, Junior, and Soph-Frosh divisions, but no school may win more than one award in any one division, regardless of the number of teams entered by that school.

Contest Procedures

  1. PROCTORING: Each contest must be actively proctored at all times by a mathematics teacher who must sign the contest reports to be forwarded to the NYCIML secretary. Neither the proctor, nor anyone else, may interpret or explain any problem to any student during the competition.
  2. CONTESTANT SUBSTITUTIONS: Students officially designated as competing shall be the only ones whose scores are counted towards the team score. Such designation shall be made PRIOR to the distribution of each problem pair. These five students are the only ones from the team who shall have their answers recorded on the official results sheet for that particular problem pair. These five students will be told BEFORE each problem pair that their scores will count. Team substitutions may be made between each pair of problems, but at no other time.
  3. MATERIALS ALLOWED: Only plain paper, to be supplied by the school, and pencil or pen, may be used by the contestants. No graph paper, compasses, straight edges, rulers, mathematical tables, calculators, or other devices shall be allowed.
  4. STARTING TIME: Meets may be held at any time during the scheduled day.
  5. CONTEST DATES: All Meets must be held on the scheduled dates, unless an entire meet is rescheduled or unless specific exemption is made by the Executive Board due to extraordinary circumstances.
  6. START OF CONTEST: Each contestant shall be given a copy of the first pair of problems, face down, and shall write his/her name on this sheet, near the top, along with the name of his/her school. The contestant shall also write the numbers of the two problems being attempted. Answers submitted must appear next to or near the appropriate problem number. Answers written next to the incorrect number or elsewhere receive no credit. On command, all papers will be turned face up. The proctor will then read the two questions aloud one time each, in succession, after which the signal to start will be made and the timing of the problems will begin. The same procedures shall be followed for succeeding problems. The proctor shall not explain any question to any contestant during the competition.
  7. WARNINGS: Warnings that “five minutes remain”, that “one minute remains”, and that “fifteen seconds remain” shall be made to all contestants at the appropriate times. No other warnings or announcements (relative to the contest) shall be made to any contestant under any circumstances.
  8. MARKING THE ANSWERS: Any student who continues to write after time has been called shall have both his/her answers disqualified. The answer papers are to be collected, immediately, by the team’s captain, who will then promptly give them all to the proctor. The proctor will then, privately, look at the official answers, read them aloud, and write them on the board. The proctor will then mark each paper, and the captains will then write the scored results for each team member officially competing on the score report form and (if so desired) on the board. Any disagreement as to scoring shall be resolved immediately by the proctor. Each team captain is responsible for the accuracy of the written report of his/her team. Answers mathematically exactly equivalent to the official answer shall be given credit, except that when a specific answer form has been asked for, that answer form must have been adhered to for the student to receive credit. Answers incomplete in any way receive no credit. No partial credit is allowed. An appealed answer should be scored as an “A” on the report form submitted to the NYCIML.
    The word “compute will always call for an answer in simplest form. Thus final answers like 6/4, 5 + 2, 25, √25 and 2 sin30°, for example, would not be satisfactory. In cases where there is a question as to what is “most simplified”, alternate answers may be accepted (example: 3/2 and 1.5 are both acceptable). Answers containing radicals should be in “simplest” radical form. (No radicands with perfect square factors, no fractional radicands, no irrational denominators)
  9. RESULTS: Results will be submitted through both e-mail and fax.
  10. APPEALS PROCEDURES: Appeals may be awarded only on the basis of a disallowed exactly equivalent answer or on the basis of an alternative interpretation of the problem and a correct answer to that interpretation. Alternative interpretations should be mailed to the secretary with written substantiation as the acceptability of the interpretation. If there is no answer possible for a question, only the answer “no answer possible”, or its equivalent, will be accepted, even though the official answer lists a possible answer. Appeals, which cannot be readily handled by the executive board, will be forwarded to an appeals judge for review. The NYCIML secretary will automatically adjust scores of all students submitting the same answer as an answer winning an appeal or improperly awarded credit, such changes to be indicated on the official contest reports distributed by the secretary.


* Math A is the first three semesters of a standard high school curriculum and Math B is the next three semesters. As of the 2009-2010 school year, New York State will change curricula to one composed of three one-year courses named Integrated Algebra, Integrated Geometry and Integrated Algebra 2 & Trigonometry. When this happens, every instance of “Math A” in these rules should be read “Integrated Algebra and/or Geometry” while every instance of “Math B” should be read “Integrated Algebra, Geometry, and/or Algebra 2 & Trigonometry.” The spirit of these rules is that the Soph/Frosh contests are intended for (and so are restricted to) students who have been exposed to a relatively small amount of high school mathematics. As always, please direct any questions to the NYCIML executive committee.