North Suburban Mathematics League

The North Suburban Math League is a group of schools in the Chicago area that compete in five math competitions throughout the school year.

2021-2022 Meet Dates

• Meet #1: Wednesday, September 29, 2021
• Meet #2: Wednesday, November 3, 2021
• Meet #3: Thursday, December 9, 2021
• Meet #4: Wednesday, February 2, 2022
• Meet #5: Thursday, March 10, 2022 (Conference Meet)

2021-2022 Topics

Meets 3 and 4 are NO CALCULATOR.

	Meet 1	Meet 1	Meet 3	Meet 4
Freshmen	Ratios, Proportions, and Percent	Number Bases	Counting Basics and Simple Probability	Number Theory and Divisibility
Sophomores	Perimeter, Area, and Surface Area	Logic, Sets, and Venn Diagrams	Geometric Probability	Advanced Geometry Topics
Juniors	Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities	Polynomials	Probability	Logs and Exponentials
Seniors	Triangle Trigonometry with Applications	Theory of Equations	Probability	Conics
Orals	Divisibility	Induction	Generating Functions	Combinatorics and Probability

Rules and Information

This is only a summary of the rules. To see the complete rules, please see the NSML website.

Written Events

• Each team enters 5 contestants and 5 alternates at each event. If a team wants to bring more than 5 alternates for any event, they must get permission from the host school in advance. No alternates are allowed at meet 5 (the conference meet).

• The team's score for an event is the sum of the top three contestants' scores. Alternates' scores will only be counted towards their individual records, not towards the team's total.

• There will be four written tests at each meet, one at each grade level. Each test will consist of five short-answer questions, worth a total of 25 points. Questions 1 and 2 will each be worth 4 points, question 3 will be worth 5 points, and questions 4 and 5 will be worth 6 points each.

• Each test will be exactly thirty minutes in length.

• The only materials students may use during the contest are: pens or pencils, erasers, calculators, and extra batteries. A student may use at most three calculators. Any battery (or solar) powered calculator that does not do symbolic manipulation is allowed. Freshmen and sophomores may not use an HP48 series calculator. In some cases, symbolic manipulators may be expected. These contests will be designated as CAS topics. Likewise, some contests may be designated as no calculator contests. Contests with special calculator exceptions will be identified as such on the schedule and on the topics list.

• Students may compete in more than one event at each meet. They may compete above their grade level but not below it. The freshman and junior competitions begin at 6:15; the sophomore and senior competitions begin at 7:00. No one may compete as a contestant in both the oral and written events at a given meet.

• A student who is not yet in the ninth grade may not compete as a contestant. Any student may compete as an alternate.

Oral Events

• There will be three questions, each on a different sheet of paper. Fifteen minutes are allowed for preparation, and ten minutes for presenting. The student may bring print or written materials and a calculator into the preparation room. For meets 1-3, the student must work alone; for meet 4, up to two students may work together in the preparation room, but only one may present. There is no oral event at the conference meet (meet 5).

• Scoring - each judge will award points according to the following criteria:
  • Question #1 - 10 points for correctness
  • Question #2 - 12 points for correctness
  • Question #3 - 13 points for correctness
  • Presentation - 15 points

See Also

• NSML Website
• Illinois mathematics competitions