Stanford Math Tournament Information

The Stanford Math Tournament consists of an individual contest portion and an overall team contest between teams of up to eight students. Students take two individual subject tests in the areas of Number Theory, Algebra, Combinatorics, and Geometry. Alternatively, less experienced students may choose to take a single, longer General Test. Teams participate in a Team Round, a test that contains short answer questions, a Power Round with proof questions, and a Guts Round.

Registration

Register for SMT 2021!

SMT 2021 Registration

Registration for the SMT is now closed. The tentative schedule is as follows:

Schedule

Our tournament is open to any organization in the U.S (not just the Bay Area!). An organization is defined as a school or an established math institution, such as A-Star and Euler Circle. Any high school student (age 14 and older) who is currently in the U.S. is permitted to compete.

Payment Details

Payment information has been sent out to accepted teams. Coaches should pay for every individual in all of their accepted teams. Payment is due on April 9th. Eventbrite will ask for names of individual contestants; it is not important if these contestants change.

Tiers

This year, we will have two tiers in order to be able to accept as many teams as possible. Coaches whose teams have been accepted should have already received an email with this information. There will be two tiers, Sapling and Tree. Teams and individuals accepted into the Sapling tier will be able to take all tests except Power. Teams in the Tree tier will be able to take every test, including Power. Except for Power, all the tests will be the same. The two tiers will be ranked separately at awards.

Editing Registration Information

Adding additional team members after the registration deadline will be subject to availability; these changes are not guaranteed.

However, information that does not affect payment (e.g. contestant names, individual test selections, etc.) may be changed freely up until the day of the contest.

Waviers and Individual Students

After acceptance, coaches will be able to invite individual students to create their accounts at stanfordmathtournament.com.

Each contestant must sign and bring a parent waiver, which will be emailed to participants. Participants should submit parent emails by April 9th into the website. Then, parents will receive an email through the event management system asking them to fill out waivers.

Testing

Team Portion

The entire team will collaborate to complete the Team Round. Teams may not collaborate with each other.

The Team Round is a 50-minute exam consisting of 15 short answer questions, testing material from all areas of high school mathematics.

Power Portion

The Power Round is an 80-minute exam focused on proof-writing. The content of the test focuses on a single subject matter that is usually significantly different than traditional competitive math problems.

Guts Portion

The Guts Round is an 80 minute team exam consisting of 9 series of 4 questions each, whereby teams must submit answers to a previous round in order to gain access to the next. Subsequent rounds are both harder and worth more points than previous rounds, culminating with the final round which is estimation-based, with your score determined by how close you are to the actual answer. The scoring per question in each round is as follows: 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20

Individual Portion

Students may choose to take two Subject Tests or take the longer General Test. Students may not collaborate with each other on the individual tests.

The Subject Tests are 50-minute individual exams consisting of 10 short answer questions. The subjects offered are Algebra, Combinatorics, Number Theory, and Geometry.

The General Test is a 110-minute test that is designed for students with less mathematical background. It is held at the same time as the subject tests and contains 25 short answer questions.

Mathematical Expectations

See the mathematical expectations document for guidelines on the topics that may appear on each test.

Common Mathematical Notions

See the common mathematical notions document for details on mathematical conventions used at SMT.

Computational Aids

The following may be used during the contest

• Rulers, compasses, protractors, and graph paper
• Dictionaries (for contestants who need assistance with English)

The following may not be used during any testing portion of the contest

• Calculators
• Other computational aids, such as slide rules and abaci
• Reference materials, such as books and notes
• Communication devices, such as cell phones and computers
• Any drawing aids not expressly permitted