Mock MathCounts
A Mock MathCounts is a contest intended to mimic an actual MathCounts exam. A number of Mock MathCounts competitions have been hosted on the Art of Problem Solving message boards. Some are made by one community member, while others may be sourced from a group or the general community. Then they are administered to the AoPS community. Different users may have a different way of participating: some may require signups, while others do not.
Mock MathCounts' are usually very popular in the months leading up to the actual MathCounts competition. There is no guarantee that community members will make Mock MathCounts' in any given year, but it's usually a good bet that someone will.
Contents
Tips for Writing a Mock MathCounts
Here are some tips to write a good mock MathCounts:
- Have multiple people work on the problems. Getting more people will get variety and prevents mocks from having too many problems from one subject. Having a group is also good so they can discuss which problems are good or need improvement, and fix errors. More than one person working on a mock can get the test done faster and often times better quality.
- Get people to proofread it. Look for spelling, grammar, ambiguously-worded questions (this includes geometry questions for which more than one configuration is possible!), typos in the answers, etc. Have someone to look over the problems, make sure they are appropriate in difficulty and order, and understandable by the general audience. Additionally, make sure they are written in the style of an actual MATHCOUNTS exam, e.g. add "Express your answer as a common fraction" or "Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth" where appropriate.
- Don't be afraid to harshly criticize your problems. Usually criticism is what helps mocks get better!
- Make sure the problems are original. The AoPS community does not want to waste time seeing a collection of boring, cliche problems that in principle are identical to an existing problem from a past MathCounts, with a few numbers modified.
- Add variety. Nobody wants to see a sprint round with 15 counting problems or 20 algebra problems. Generally, algebra and geometry should have a larger emphasis than number theory and counting. The target round should have problems from all four subjects.
- Once the test has been released, it is usually a good idea to keep the answers from being released at the same time. This can help prevent cheating, and also gives the problem solvers more time to make sure the problems are solved correctly.
Basically, getting many people to work on the mock is a great way to help improve the quality, though it is not always the case if everyone gets off task and "helpers" becomes "parasites".
Past Mock Mathcounts
Listed below are several Mock Mathcounts' which have been hosted over AoPS in the past.
Difficulty is rated on a scale from 0 to 5, where 1 is school level and 5 is national level. Note that this is not necessarily the same as the intended difficulty. If you take a contest, please contribute by rating it.
Also note that "author" is the user who started the mock competition, not his or her helpers.
Unrated
If you attempt one of these contests, please help out by rating it.
Author | Year | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mock Mathcounts | ragnarok23 | 2006 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts | #H34N1 | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Sprint Target | n/a | n/a |
My Mock Test | Gauss1181 | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Target | n/a | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Competition | andersonw | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Sprint / Target p1 | n/a | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts Round | abacadaea | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Sprint | n/a | n/a |
My Mock Test | runpengFAILS | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Results / Discussion | |
42nd Mock Mathcounts | xpmath | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Sprint/Target Team | n/a | Results/Discussion |
Waffle's Mock Mathcounts | Waffle | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Izzy's Mock Mathcounts | isabella2296 | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | Results / Discussion |
|- ! scope="row" | Mock MATHCOUNTS | mathdragon2000, potato36, Ultroid999OCPN, Kagebaka, math9990 | 2017 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |}
School
Author | Year | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mock MC School | PowerOfPi | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS School | KingSmasher3 | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | Results / Discussion |
Mathcounts School Round | Maybach | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts School | Th3Numb3rThr33 | 2014 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mental MathCounts | suli | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Chapter
Author | Year | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mock Mathcounts A | #H34N1 | 2006 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | n/a |
Mock MathCounts Chapter | AIME15 | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Sprint Target | n/a | Results / Discussion |
Mock MC Chapter | PowerOfPi | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS Chapter | KingSmasher3 | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mathcounts Chapter Round | Maybach | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts B | Mathc314 | 2011 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts | iNomOnCountdown | 2014 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Chapter | RadioActive | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Chapter | uwotm8 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition | reddragon644, ev3commander | 2017 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS Chapter Round!'" | kevinmathz | 2017 | Initial Discussion | [null] | [null] | [null] |
State
Author | Year | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mock Mathcounts National 2006 | biffanddoc | 2006 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock MATHCOUNTS State | KingSmasher3 | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mathcounts State Round | Maybach | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Sprint Target | n/a | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts A | BOGTRO | 2011 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Chapter | Th3Numb3rThr33 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Chapter Competition | SuperMathWiz | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
July 4th Mock State Competition | ishankhare | 2016 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | n/a |
Mock MathCounts State | reun | 2016 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock MATHCOUNTS State Competition | reddragon644, e_power_pi_times_i, muhandae17, ProGameXD | 2017 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS 2018 State Competition | scrabbler94 | 2018 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results |
National
Author | Year | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
My Second Mock Test! | Yongyi781 | 2008 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Test | sansuunoousama | 2009 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts Exam | luppleAOPS | 2011 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts National | forthegreatergood | 2013 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts | BOGTRO | 2014 | Initial Discussion | Problems | n/a | n/a |
Mock Mathcounts National | joey8189681 | 2014 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts C | efang | 2014 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts | mudkipswims42 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results / Discussion |
Crowd Sourced Mock Mathcounts National | DeathLlama9 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts State B | Th3Numb3rThr33 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts National | Th3Numb3rThr33 | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts National Target | nosaj | 2015 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Results/Discussion |
Mock Mathcounts Nationals | Mudkipswims42 | 2016 | Initial Discussion | Problems | Answers | Discussion |
Mock MATHCOUNTS National Competition | muhandae17 | 2017 | [Initial Discussion] | [Problems] | [Answers] | [Discussion] |