John O'Bryan Mathematics Competition

In the team competition, all five members of the team work together in an attempt to solve six equally weighted problems.

• The problems may be divided among teammates in any way the team desires; teams have 40 minutes to complete solutions to any or all of the problems.
  
• All solutions submitted require appropriate justification to receive credit. A proof, or other clear explanation, must be provided for each answer.
  
• Calculator output may be used to understand a problem or check an answer, but should not be included as part of a final written answer.
  
• Partial credit will be given, but only for significant progress toward a solution.
  
• Teams should hand in only work to be graded; each page must contain the team code as well as the problem number in the upper left hand corner. All problems should be worked on separate sheets of paper. Scratch work should NOT be included as extraneous or incorrect work submitted may reduce the score for that problem.

Team competition papers will be scored by Department of Mathematics and Statistics faculty from NKU.

The individual competition consists of a 20-question mathematics test. Students will have 50 minutes to work as many questions as possible.

• Students may compete at the freshman-sophomore level or the junior-senior level, as appropriate (juniors and seniors may not take the freshman-sophomore test).
  
• For the varisty competition, the team score shall be determined by the sum of the best three individual student scores such that at least two scores from the junior-senior exam are included (i.e. only one freshman-sophomore exam score may be counted toward the team total). For the junior varsity competition, the team score shall be determined by the sum of the best three individual student scores such that at least two scores from the freshman-sophomore exam are included.  Note:  When possible, school ties in the team written event will be broken by examination of the 4th and 5th best scores.
  
• Students must record their answer to each question on the provided answer-sheet, which shall also include their name and team code.
  
• All answers must be written legibly on the correct blanks of the answer sheet. Scores are based on exact, complete, simplified answers only. If the question specifies a form for the answer, correct answers will only be accepted in the specified form. No work need be shown and no partial credit is given.

Definition of "simplified"

• Fractions are reduced to lowest terms (the use of horizontal fraction bars instead of slash marks is highly encouraged; ambiguous answers, such as 8/3x, will be considered incorrect). Improper fractions are preferable to mixed numbers (which can become ambiguous).

• Radical expressions are found in the numerator of a fraction only; the integer beneath the radical should be made as small as possible (e.g. 2*SQRT(2) is correct, while SQRT(8), 2.828, and SQRT(32) / 2 are not).  

• Units of measurement are not required in the answer and should not be given.

• Scientific notation should not be used for answers expressed in decimal form.

• Specific instructions in a given problem take precedence over all of the above.

In this competition, a sequence of eight mathematical problems are flashed one at a time on a projector screen. The two students from each team work together to submit the correct answer in the fastest time.

• Two students from each varsity team may be chosen by their coaches to participate in this competition.
  
• The pair of students for the two-person speed competition may consist of any combination of grade levels (including two seniors).
  
• Teams may only submit one answer to each problem. An answer is submitted by folding the answer sheet vertically in half and holding it above one's head.
  
• Scores are based on exact, complete, simplified answers only (as in the individual competition). Proctors in the room will check the answers for each team and record scores.
  • The first correct answer submitted for each problem scores 7 points.
  • The second correct answer submitted for each problem scores 5 points.
  • All other correct answers within a maximum of three minutes per problem score 3 points.
    
• If the competition results in a tie for first, second, or third place after eight rounds, up to two tie breaking questions will be used in an attempt to break the tie. Only those teams involved in the tie will participate in a tiebreaker. If the tie is not broken after two rounds because no correct answers are submitted, the participating students individual score average will be used to break the tie if possible; otherwise the result will remain a tie. Tie-breaking questions will not count toward a team's overall score.
  
• If there are more than 12 teams participating in this part of the competition, teams may be divided into two "rooms" at the discretion of the contest chairs. Each room would be scored according to the above mechanism.
  
• If the highest scoring team in the two-person speed competition exceeds 30, all scores will be scaled such that the highest score counting toward overall results will be 30.