HSMC_Contacts

hsmc_contacts@mathdept.okstate.edu

20 discussions

2012 OSU math contest results
by Jeffrey Mermin 28 Nov '12

28 Nov '12

Dear Math coordinators, We (finally) have results for last month's OSU high school math contest. The winners are posted on our contest website here: http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2012 http://www.math.okstate.edu/system/files/results_hsc2012.pdf Like last year, I've posted results for three divisions based loosely on school size: An open division, "6A" which excludes large magnet schools and elite private academies, and "3A" which excludes larger schools. I used OSSAA academic bowl classifications for Oklahoma schools, and did my best to guess for out-of-state schools. Also like last year, I'm not certain the lines are drawn in the right place. If anyone knows a more natural way to do this, please tell me. In the meantime, if I've mis-classified your school, let me know and I'll fix it. Congratulations to the winners, and to all who participated, and many thanks for your patience with the long wait. Our staff should be sending prizes to the winners and detailed results to the participating schools in the next month or so. In the meantime, if you would like a detailed breakdown of your students' scores, ask me at <mermin(a)math.okstate.edu> and I should answer quickly. Next year's contest will be held in early October; we'll know the exact date sometime in late spring. We look forward to seeing many of you in Stillwater in the fall. Thanks, Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

2012 OSU math contest: October 9
by Jeffrey Mermin 19 Aug '12

19 Aug '12

Dear Math Coordinators, I am writing to inform you of the 2012 OSU High School Math Contest. Please share this information with your high school's academic coach, interested faculty members, and students. This contest is a challenging exam which emphasizes creativity, logic and problem solving skills. All juniors and seniors with an interest in mathematics are highly encouraged to participate. Students in earlier grades who have a strong background and aptitude for mathematics are also eligible, and are welcome to join the event. The contest will be held in the Wes Watkins Center on OSU's Stillwater Campus on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, from 1:00 p.m. to approximately 4:30 p.m. To ensure that we have enough space, we are asking that all participants be registered by September 28, 2012. The registration form is available online at <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2012>. Please mail or fax a completed form by this deadline. Like last year, the contest will consist of a 75-minute multiple choice round, followed by a 90-minute team round, consisting of longer questions on which students, working in groups of four, will be asked to explain their reasoning. We realize that the number of students from most schools will not be divisible by four. We will do our best to match up groups of complementary size to make full-sized teams. However, we ask that schools bringing more than four students partition their delegations ahead of time. Last year's exam, solutions, and related material may be found on the website <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2011>. We request a materials fee of 5 dollars per student, payable in advance or on the day of the exam. Please contact us if you need financial aid. Out of state entrants more than 150 miles from Stillwater should also contact us. Off-site testing is possible. All other information including an announcement, parking instructions, and a campus map are available on the contest website <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2012>. If you have questions about the contest, please contact me or Shelly Downing at <hsc(a)math.okstate.edu> or at (405) 744-5688. For other questions about OSU, you may also contact the Office of High School and College Relations at 1-800-852-1255 if you are outside the state of Oklahoma, or 1-800-233-5019 Ext. 3 if you are within the state. I look forward to seeing you and your students on the OSU Stillwater Campus for the contest. Sincerely, Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

Fall 2012 OSU high school math contest - October 9
by Jeffrey Mermin 10 May '12

10 May '12

Dear Math coordinators, Next fall's OSU high school math contest will be held on Tuesday, October 9. We will send another announcement, with details and registration forms, in June or July. For now, we just want to announce the date for your calendars. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Stillwater campus in October. Sincerely, Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

2011 OSU Math contest results
by Jeffrey Mermin 19 Nov '11

19 Nov '11

Dear Math coordinators, We've finally finished scoring this October's OSU math contest, and the results are now available at http://www.math.okstate.edu/system/files/results_hsc2011.pdf or from our contest web page, http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2011 . Congratulations to the winners, and to all who participated! Our staff will mail detailed results to all the participating schools this week; in the meantime, if you'd like me to try to extract your school's results from our spreadsheet I will attempt to do so. A couple of notes: * James Rowan of St. Mark's has pointed out that, in problem 11, it is possible to make 8 squares out of 17 toothpicks if one uses three dimensions. While we had intended the problem to take place in the plane, this is a legitimate interpretation, so we're counting this answer (E) as correct. I had to make the correction by hand, and consequently only looked at students who were close to the leaderboard. * Because round two is no longer counted toward individual scores, there are a lot more ties. We're using question 25 as a tiebreaker, then question 24 as a secondary tiebreaker, and so on. The posted order within each tie was determined this way. * Having run the contest for two years now, and looked at some historical results, I've concluded that the winners will almost always all come from a very small collection of schools. This is a little unfortunate, in that I'd like every contestant, or at least every school, to believe that they have some chance to win. So I've used the OSSAA Academic Bowl classifications to break schools into three groups: Everyone; "Class 6A" (which excludes statewide magnets and elite private academies, but includes the OSSM regional centers); and "Class 3A" (which includes only schools listed in Class 3A and below by OSSAA). I like this basic model, but have no idea whether or not the implementation is sensible. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them. * The score for each team is determined by adding the four individual scores (for a possible total of 100) to the team score (out of 100) for a possible total of 200 points. This means that teams with fewer than four students are at a significant disadvantage. We deal with this during the contest by matching smaller groups up, to the greatest extent possible. What, if anything, should be done about it when results are announced? (This year, the team of Anna Zhao and Benjamin Zhao (OSSM - OKC) scored 103 points; a naive extrapolation suggests that with two similar teammates they'd be very close to the leaderboard.) * Many schools brought more than one full team, and in fact OSSM-OKC and St. Mark's would have dominated team standings almost as thoroughly as they did the individual standings if I'd posted all those scores. So I decided to list only the highest-scoring team from each school. * Many schools brought more than one full team, and sometimes these teams chose to identify themselves with a nickname. These were frequently silly but as far as I can tell never inappropriate, so I've chosen to preserve them for the winners. Next year perhaps some of this can be automated, making the results available more quickly. Again, congratulations to all who participated, and we hope to see many of you next fall. Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

2011 OSU math contest
by Jeffrey Mermin 19 Oct '11

19 Oct '11

Dear math coordinators, This year's OSU math contest was held on the Stillwater campus on October 4. Turnout was way up from last year: many thanks to all who came, and we hope you enjoyed the day. We are still in the process of grading the team rounds, but solutions are now posted on the contest web page, http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2011 . We hope to have results within the next couple of weeks. Since this was the first year with a team round, we're still trying to smooth out the details. If you've got any suggestions for what we could've done better, or insights into the experience from the students' perspective, please pass them on to me at <mermin(a)math.okstate.edu>. Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

registration form
by Hardway, Donna 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

Can you email me a registration form for the OSU math contest? May I submit it electronically tomorrow? Donna Hardway Union Public Schools

1 0

2011 OSU high school math contest
by Jeffrey Mermin 08 Sep '11

08 Sep '11

Dear Math Coordinators, I am writing to inform you of the 2011 OSU High School Math Contest. Please share this information with your high school's academic coach, interested faculty members, and students. This contest is a challenging exam which emphasizes creativity, logic and problem solving skills. All juniors and seniors with an interest in mathematics are highly encouraged to participate. Students in earlier grades who have a strong background and aptitude for mathematics are also eligible, and are welcome to join the event. The contest will be held in the Wes Watkins Center on OSU's Stillwater Campus on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. To ensure that we have enough space, we are asking that all participants be registered by September 23, 2011. The registration form is available online at <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2011>. Please mail or fax a completed form by this deadline. As in previous years, the contest will consist of a 75-minute multiple choice round, followed by a 90-minute round consisting of longer questions on which students will be asked to explain their reasoning. However, in a departure from previous years, the second round will be a team round: students will work together in groups of four, and teams will submit jointly written solutions. We realize that the number of students from most schools will not be divisible by four. We will do our best to match up groups of complementary size to make full-sized teams. However, we ask that schools bringing more than four students partition their delegations ahead of time. Last year's contest, solutions, and related material may be found on the website <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2010>. We request a materials fee of 5 dollars per student, payable in advance or on the day of the exam. Please contact us if you need financial aid. Out of state entrants more than 150 miles from Stillwater should also contact us. Off-site testing is possible. All other information including an announcement, parking instructions, and a campus map are available on the contest website <http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2011>. If you have questions about the contest, please contact me or Shelly Downing at <hsc(a)math.okstate.edu> or at (405) 744-5688. For other questions about OSU, you may also contact the Office of High School and College Relations at 1-800-852-1255 if you are outside the state of Oklahoma, or 1-800-233-5019 Ext. 3 if you are within the state. I look forward to seeing you and your students on the OSU Stillwater Campus for the contest. Sincerely, Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 1

Oklahoma State math contest - solutions and results
by Jeffrey Mermin 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

Dear math coordinators, The solutions and results to this year's OSU math contest are (finally!) posted on the contest web page, http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2010 Congratulations to all who participated - this was my first year affiliated with the contest, and I was very impressed by the quality and creativity of everyone's work on part II. Our staff will mail out certificates and detailed results as soon as everything can be collected; it sounds like this may take until the end of the month. I apologize for the delays; with any luck I will be able to schedule things more skillfully in future years. Sincerely, Jeff Mermin -- Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics Oklahoma State University mermin(a)math.okstate.edu

1 0

2010 Oklahoma State University math contest
by Jeffrey Mermin 24 Sep '10

24 Sep '10

Dear Math Coordinator, I am writing to remind you of Oklahoma State University's 2010 High School Math Contest, which will be held on Thursday, October 7. Please share this information with your high school's academic coach, interested faculty members, and students. This contest is a challenging exam which emphasizes creativity, logic, and problem solving skills. All juniors and seniors with an interest in mathematics are highly encouraged to participate. Students in earlier grades who have a strong background and aptitude for mathematics are also eligible, and are welcome to join the event. While there is no limit on the number of participants per high school, every school may also designate a team of three students whose ranks will determine the school's team score. Each team member also competes in the exam as an individual and is eligible for all the individual prizes. Students wishing to participate on their high school team should discuss this with their high school math teacher or the math team's sponsor. The contest will be held in the Wes Watkins Center on OSU's Stillwater Campus on Thursday, October 7, 2010, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. In order for us to reserve enough space, we ask that all participants be registered by September 24. The registration form is available online at http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2010. Please mail or fax a completed form by this deadline. The contest will be in two parts. The first part consists of multiple choice questions and is for a duration of 75 minutes. The second part consists of longer questions, where the correctness and elegance of solutions will be considered while grading, and will be for a duration of 90 minutes. There will be a 15 minute break between the two parts. The 2009 exam, solutions, and related material may be found on the website http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2009. We request a materials fee of 5 dollars per student, payable in advance or on the day of the exam. Please contact us if you need financial aid. Out of state entrants more than 150 miles from Stillwater should also contact us. Off-site testing is possible. All other information including an announcement, parking instructions, and a campus map are available on the contest website http://www.math.okstate.edu/hsc2010. Questions about the exam or its administration should be addressed to the Math Contest Coordinator at hsc(a)math.okstate.edu or at (405) 744-5688. For other questions about OSU, you may also contact the Office of High School and College Relations at 1-800-852-1255 if you are outside the state of Oklahoma, or 1-800-233-5019 Ext. 3 if you are within the state. I look forward to seeing you and your students on the OSU Stillwater Campus for the contest. Sincerely, Jeff Mermin Assistant Professor of Mathematics mermin(a)math.okstate.edu (405)-744-5781

1 1

OSU-Mathematics Annual High School Math Contest October 1, 2009
by Shelly Downing 21 Sep '09

21 Sep '09

Hello Everyone, The OSU-Mathematics Annual High School Math Contest is Thursday, October 1, 2009 on the Oklahoma State University campus! It is not to late to register for this fantastic event! Registration deadline has been extended to Tuesday, September 29, 2009! If your math students are interested in participating you can view the contest information on our math website at http://www.math.okstate.edu I have attached a personal letter from Dr. Raghuram the chair of the High School Math Contest inviting all high schools to the event and further important instructions for registering!! Thank you for your time. Shelly Downing

1 0

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

HSMC_Contacts