International Mathematics Competition

The International Mathematics Competition is a competition for Upper Primary Education (Key Stage II) and Lower Secondary Education (Key Stage III). Each year each country prepares teams of 4 students to compete in both, an individual and a team contetst.

Format of the Competition

Both the individual and the team exam take place the same day.

Individual

• For Key Stage II, it consists of 15 questions that requirer only numerical answers to be filled in the blank of an answer sheet. Each problem is worth 10 points with a maximum total of 150 points.

• For Key Stage III, it has 12 questions that require only the answers to be written in the blanks, and 3 of the questions require full solutions. The former is worth 5 points each while the latter is 20 points each, with a maximum total of 120 points.

Teams

There are 10 problems in the Team Contest, arranged in increasing order of difficulty. Each problem is worth 40 points and problem 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 require complete solutions for full credits. Partial credits may be awarded. It has the following divisions:

1. First, they have 10 minutes to discuss and distribute the first 8 problems among themselves; each student solves at least one problem. Team members are not allowed to use pencil or pen during the ten minutes discussion period.
2. Each student will then have 35 minutes to write the solutions of the allotted problem independently, with no further discussion or exchange of problems.
3. The four team members are allowed 25 minutes to solve the last 2 problems together.

Awards

Individual Award

Approximately two-thirds of the contestants receive them, in the following approximate ratio:

• Gold: 1/10
• Silver: 2/10
• Bronze: 3/10
• Merit Certificate: 4/10

Group Award

The highest score of the three contestants in each team for Individual Contest are summed up. Prizes are awarded to the top teams with the highest scores of each group in the form of one Champion, two 1st runner-up and three 2nd runner-up.

Team Award

In the team contest, the total score of all contestants in each team is considered the team score. The teams are first ranked by their total scores. Prizes are given to one Champion, two 1st runner-up and three 2nd runner-up of different groups. Grouping is done through drawing of lots.

Overall Award

The Overall Prize is awarded according to the sum of the four team members’ score in the Individual Contest, and of the team’s score in the Team Contest. The maximum score is 4×150+400=1000 (for Key Stage II) and 4×120+400=880 (for Key Stage III). Second and Third Prizes are also awarded.

History

Key Stage III

The International World Youth Mathematics Competetion (IWYMIC) was first hosted in 1999, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Professor Leou Hsian of Kaohsiung National Normal University established this competition for junior high school students who loved math.

For two years, IWYMIC was held in Kaohsiung where participating teams came mostly from countries in Southeast Asia. Then different countries took turns to hosted this competition every year until today.

Key Stage II

EMIC was originally started in 2003. Dr. Kajornpai Pramote of the Ministry of Education of Thailand gave life to (organized) EIMC with the support of Buddhist Temple, where 14 countries had participated.

India, Philippines, Indonesia, and Hong Kong took turns to hosted EMIC until 2007.

2008, EMIC came back to Thailand, the Ministry of Education of Thailand first combine IWYMIC and EMIC together, and named it “International Math Competitions” (IMC).

Problem Selection

IMC problems are composed by experts of the participating countries, with each expert proposing 5 problems for each category. Earlier, the test problems were selected in the leaders’ meeting. Now, they are selected and modified by the IMC test affairs committee.

The individual contest problems focus on graphical analysis, logical thinking and language comprehension [expression] abilities. It challenges students’ math wisdom and overall potential.

In contrast, the team contest problems usually incorporate concepts from daily life and are selected to be interesting. They challenge students’ cooperation and problem solving abilities.

Reference

All this information was collected from the Official Website