This year's contest will again be sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Martino, and by the Lehigh University Department of Mathematics. Paul Martino participated in the 1992 contest for North Penn HS and graduated from Lehigh University in 1995. He has founded several Silicon Valley companies, including tribe.net, and currently is CEO of AggregateKnowledge. He and his wife have made a substantial donation to this contest and the Lehigh Valley ARML team. Awards will be $300 for the top scorer, $200 for second highest, $150 for third highest, $100 for fourth, $80 for fifth highest, and $50 for sixth highest, out of all students. Ties will be broken using the criterion of "fewest wrong answers." If there are still ties, prize monies will be split. There is no penalty for guessing incorrect answers unless you are tied for a prize, in which case it is better to leave a question blank rather than making an incorrect guess.
The introductory page of the 2009 exam should be very similar to the first page of 2008 exam with instructions
A plaque will be awarded to the top individual in grade levels 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, and to the top team-of-four at grade levels 9, 10, 11, and 12. A team competing at a certain grade level may consist of students at or below that grade level. A team's score is computed by adding the scores of its four members. A school may send as many teams-of-four as desired, but the groupings into teams-of-four must be presented prior to the contest. Middle school students and high school students from the same school district may be on the same team. A team of 8th graders would compete in the ninth grade team division, but the 8th grade individual division. Merit certificates will be presented to all participants.
The exam will be a 2-hour written examination beginning at 10:00 AM in Packard Lab Auditorium. It will consist of 40 questions with numerical answers. Calculators are not allowed. A student's score is equal to the number of questions answered correctly. There is no partial credit, except that an answer that is correct but not adequately simplified may receive half a point.
While examinations are being graded, students will have an opportunity to eat lunch on or off campus (at their own expense), see a presentation related to mathematics (details to be announced later) and/or see a discussion of solutions of the exam questions. Presentation of awards will be made in Packard room 466 at 2:30 PM.
Faculty advisers are welcome, but not required to attend. I need to know the names, grades, and groupings of your students at least three days before the contest. Individuals may participate even if their school is not sending a group. Such people should let me know, at least three days in advance, that they are coming. There is no registration fee. Maps of campus and copies of the past few exams are available from www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/hs.html. It is highly recommended that students look at some of these previous exams.
During the past 16 years, I have coached a Lehigh Valley team in the American Regions Math League (ARML), a national competition which takes place (for the northeastern part of the country) at Penn State the Saturday after Memorial Day. A team consists of 15 people. In 2008, we had four teams, so 60 students altogether. Our Fire team won the national championship in 2005, and finished second in 2007 and third in 2006, beating such teams as New York City A, Chicago A, and San Francisco Bay A all three years. In 2008, we finished 11th.
I use the results of my contest as a primary criterion for selection to the team. Outstanding students who are unable to participate in my contest but are interested in being considered for the Lehigh Valley ARML team should contact me. Practice sessions are held at Lehigh University most Sundays during the spring from 3:30-6:00. We had a lot of top middle school students on the 2007 and 2008 teams. Middle schools students who are in the top 10 in their region in MathCounts are encouraged to participate in the March 7 contest. Many students come from up to 75 miles away to be on our team. This includes all of southeastern Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey. Students whose schools participate in the Central Jersey Math League and who have not been on the Lehigh Valley ARML team in the past are not eligible to be on the LV ARML team.
Don Davis, dmd1@lehigh.edu, (610) 758-3756