Math Day at the Beach is a mathematical problem solving festival for Southern California high school students, hosted by California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).

There is both individual and team competition. Teams represent high schools and have 6 members each. The competition takes place on a Saturday in March.

Format of the Competition

The competition consists of two individual rounds, a team round, a relay round, and a faceoff round.

Individual Round - Part 1

This round lasts 45 minutes and consists of 15 multiple-choice questions. Scoring consists of:

4 points for each correct answer
1 point is awarded for each question left blank
0 points for each incorrect answer

This means that the maximum possible score is 60 points.

Individual Round - Part 2

This round lasts for 25 minutes and consists of 5 short-answer questions. Your score is 5 times the number of correct answers, for a maximum score of 25.

Team Round

This round lasts for 30 minutes and consists of 8 short-answer questions. The entire team works together on this round, and submits one set of answers. The team's score is 10 times the number of correct answers, for a maximum of 80 points.

While the individual rounds do not require calculus, there are typically one or two calculus questions on the team round.

Relay Round

This was introduced in 2008 and does not count towards teams' scores. It is similar in format to the ARML relay round.

Faceoff Round

The top four individuals from the individual round meet in an oral round loosely modeled on the Mathcounts Countdown, but with longer time limits. Two competitors sit on the stage, and each is given a problem to work. The first to ring in is given a chance to say the correct answer; if that is wrong, the second person is given a limited amount of time (varying by question, usually 30 to 60 seconds) to ring in and answer. This is structured as a single-elimination tournament. In the first round, the winner is the first to answer two questions correctly; in the final round, the winner is the first to answer three questions correctly. The winner adds 10 points to his or her individual score (and his team's team score) and the 2nd place individual adds 5 points. While these point totals are relatively small, they have been decisive in determining individual and team winners in some years.

Tedrick Leung was the winner of the Faceoff Round for four consecutive years, 2004 through 2007.

Winning schools

2000: Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
2001: Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
2002: University HS, Irvine
2003: University HS, Irvine
2004: North Hollywood HS (won tiebreaker over University)
2005: North Hollywood HS
2006: Division A: North Hollywood HS --- Division B: Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
2007: Division A: North Hollywood HS --- Division B: Troy HS, Fullerton
2008: Division A: University HS, Irvine --- Division B: Northwood HS, Irvine
2009: Division A: University HS, Irvine --- Division B: Irvine HS
2010: Division A: University HS, Irvine --- Division B: Gretchen Whitney HS, Cerritos
2011: Division A: University HS, Irvine --- Division B: Mark Keppel HS, Alhambra
2012: Division A: University HS, Irvine --- Division B: Harvard-Westlake School, North Hollywood
2013: Division A: Troy HS, Fullerton --- Division B: Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet HS, Los Angeles
2014: Division A: Troy HS, Fullerton --- Division B: Diamond Bar HS

Winning individuals

2000: Eric Liang, Sunny Hills HS, Fullerton
2001: Allen Huang, Palos Verdes Peninsula HS
2002: Wen Li, Arcadia HS
2003: Yingkun (Roger) Li, Mark Keppel HS, Alhambra
2004: Will Nygard, Coronado HS (competing as an independent)
2005: Tedrick Leung, North Hollywood HS
2006: Tedrick Leung, North Hollywood HS
2007: Tedrick Leung, North Hollywood HS
2008: Jeffrey Manning, Homeschooled (competing as an independent)
2009: Zhifan (Ivan) Zhang, University HS, Irvine
2010: David Yang, Diamond Bar HS
2011: Kevin Yin, San Marino HS
2012: Zach Markos, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet HS, Los Angeles
2013: Victor Chen, Troy HS, Fullerton
2014: Bryan Brzycki, Troy HS, Fullerton
2015:
2016: Benjamin Chen, Diamond Bar High School
2017: Benjamin Chen, Diamind Bar High School

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Math Day at the Beach

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