login / create a profile

ELEMENTARY CONTESTS MIDDLE SCHOOL CONTESTS HIGH SCHOOL CONTESTS ARML TEAMS CLASSES STORE CONTACT
MAIN UPCOMING EVENTS RESULTS TEST DESCRIPTIONS HOSTING RULES AND POLICIES MEMBERSHIP

mathleague.org Rules and Policies

Please email us if you have a question that is not addressed in this section. Violation of these rules is considered fraud and will result in disqualification and possible further sanctions. These rules were last updated September 6, 2016.
  • Definition of a school: In order for a school to participate in our contests, mathleague.org must have a current membership form on file from the school for the level of contest(s) the school intends to participate in. In order to be considered a school for purposes of our contests, the school must be an accredited, transcript-issuing public or private school, or a transcript-issuing non-accredited private school or home school organization that is in compliance with the relevant local laws for establishing such a school. mathleague.org reserves the right to request a transcript from a school if it requires further clarification regarding a school's or student's status. An after-school program, tutoring center, or community organization is presumptively assumed NOT to be a school for purposes of these rules unless it issues transcripts and there are at least some students who spend more than 50% of their total instructional time in that setting.
     
  • Home schools: A group of home schooled students from within the same state may affiliate under the name of an organization that mathleague.org will recognize as a school for the purposes of competition. The name of the school must include the words "home school" or some variation that will make it clear that the school is a home school organization. mathleague.org reserves the right to require a home school organization to define the geographical boundaries of its service area at any time and for any reason, and to determine whether the boundaries are reasonable. A home schooled student's declared grade level must be equal to the grade level that student would be assigned to if the student enrolled in a public or private school in the student's state of residence.
     
  • Participation: In order to register for a contest, each student must identify with the school where they spend more than 50% of their instructional time. This school must be listed on our current membership roster and fit the definition of a school as described above, and the student must be enrolled in that school in a grade no higher than grade 12. If there is no school that fits our definition of a school where the student spends more than 50% of their instructional time, the student's parent or coach should contact us so we can issue a ruling on which school that student belongs to for purposes of our contests. Please note that this rule makes it mathematically impossible for a student to have a choice between two or more schools to register with for one of our contests.
     
  • Team formation: For each team event, participants from a given school should be arranged into teams of no more than the maximum size allowed for that event and division, and each team will be given a chance to identify itself with a unique name. If no name is specified, or if contest organizers determine that a name is inappropriate, contest organizers will assign a designation to the team in question. All team members must be registered with the same school. If team awards are given by grade level the team will be eligible for awards in the grade level of the most advanced student on the team.
     
  • Mathematical conventions: This document, taken verbatim from the national ARML contest, explains the notation and terms with which students need to be familiar. [Note: mathleague.org is not affiliated in any way with ARML.]
     
  • Calculators: Any calculator approved for use on the SAT is acceptable for the power question, team test, and target round. Students may use multiple calculators and are not required to clear calculator memories before testing. Students must bring their own calculators and pencils or pens to the contest; scratch paper will be provided when appropriate. No other equipment (such as protractors, cell phones, etc.) may be on the student's desk during testing. [Note: mathleague.org is not affiliated in any way with the SAT, the College Board, or collegeboard.org.]
     
  • School classification: In addition to Division A competition where team scores are determined by the top six students from each school in each event, local and state meet coordinators may offer Division B competition where team scores are determined by the top three students from each school in each event. State meet coordinators are responsible for setting and enforcing restrictions on which schools may compete in Division B and how Division B participants qualify for state, and all local meet coordinators are responsible for being familiar with their state's rules for competing in Division B. Local tournaments may not force a school to compete in Division B if it prefers to compete in Division A. mathleague.org recommends that Division B be reserved for small schools, new schools, or schools that would otherwise not be competitive in Division A, but these decisions are up to the state meet coordinator. mathleague.org does not make a distinction between individuals from Division A and Division B schools in determining who qualifies for state on the target and sprint rounds, so a student from a Division B school has the same opportunity to qualify for the Division A state meet as a Division A student.
     
  • Varsity/JV teams: While some schools choose to offer local awards at their tournaments for Junior Varsity teams (grades 9 and 10 only), local tournaments may not force 9th and 10th graders to compete on a JV team if their coach would rather them compete at the varsity level. mathleague.org does not make a distinction between Varsity and JV teams in determining who qualifies for state, so a JV team at a local tournament has the same opportunity to qualify for the state meet as a varsity team.
     
  • Junior high students: Junior high students (students in grades lower than 9) may compete in mathleague.org contests and participate on the same team as high school students. Junior high students may also qualify for and compete in the state meets, where separate prizes may be awarded for students below grade 9 depending on registration numbers. Not all local contests award individual prizes to junior high students though, and junior high students may not be awarded individual prizes that are designated for 9th through 12th grade students. Junior high students may only compete on the team of the high school that they are zoned to attend based on the district's residency policy. In cases where a high school consists of only grades 10-12, coaches may bring 9th graders onto the team as long as every such 9th grader is zoned to attend that high school based on the district's residency policy.
     
  • Crossing state lines: A school may only attend the state meet in the state where the school is located; however, a school may qualify for the state meet at any mathleague.org tournament regardless of the state the tournament is held in. For instance, if a school in Council Bluffs IA attends a tournament in Omaha NE, its students may qualify for the Iowa state meet if their scores are high enough.
     
  • Use of dictionaries: Students may not use any dictionaries or other reference materials at mathleague.org contests. If any student's proficiency in the language(s) the tests are offered in is so severely limited as to preclude participation in mathleague.org contests, that student's coach may make arrangements with mathleague.org to provide a written translation of the tests, so long as the translation can be accomplished in a timely and secure fashion, and at no cost to mathleague.org. Any such translation must be approved by mathleague.org before use at a contest. Unless special arrangements are made as described above, tests are offered only in English outside Africa; in Africa, tests are offered only in English and Afrikaans.
     
  • Substitutions for the state and league championship meets: Schools with students participating in Division A at the state or league championships are allowed one substitution for every six students who qualify for the state or league championships. To determine the exact number of substitutions allowed, take the number of students from your school that are qualified for the state or league championship, divide by 6, and if this number is not an integer round up to the nearest integer. Any student used as a substitute must have competed at a mathleague.org tournament or in our mail-in contest during the school year. All substitutes must attend the same school as the student who originally qualified, and substitutions may only be made for students who are unable to attend the championship meet. In particular, no coach may deny a qualified student the opportunity to compete at a championship meet in order to substitute another student if the original qualifier chooses to attend the championship meet.
     
  • Test Security: No school may Be Represented (having at least one student participate, whether or not authorized by the school or the school's coach) at two non-simultaneous contests with the same Release Number (sites grouped under the heading of the Release Number on the website) even if there is no single student who attends both contests. Students and coaches participating in any given contest are not to discuss the test questions or answers with anyone who did not attend the contest until after the last scheduled meet using that Release Number.
     
  • Appeals: mathleague.org has an appeals process in place to deal with issues such as test key errors or incorrect grading. If you believe your student or team should have qualified for the next level of competition but did not due to incorrect grading or errors in the answer key, please put the issue in writing and send it to us, along with the test in question. mathleague.org will consider your appeal and respond in a timely manner. Please note that places and awards given out at local meets are the sole purview of the Site Coordinator, and mathleague.org does not interfere with that aspect of administering the qualifying sites. The appeals process is only in place to ensure that no one is unfairly denied an opportunity to compete at the next level of competition. If it is found that a score is incorrect after the results are announced, mathleague.org's sole responsibility is to ensure that the student(s) on whose behalf the appeal was made are added to the qualifiers list for the next level of competition if the updated score warrants it. No other corrective action will be required of either mathleague.org or individual Site Coordinators after results are announced.
     
  • Privacy: Any student's name, grade, school, and scores (and photos, if any are taken) could potentially be reproduced on the mathleague.org website and/or through other media. Any schools or individuals who wish to avoid such publicity must contact mathleague.org prior to the start of the contest for which they wish to opt out of such publicity. While mathleague.org cannot be responsible for the actions of media outside its direct control, it will make an effort to communicate all privacy requests to any other media present at the contest.
     
  • Safety: Students and schools attend mathleague.org contests at their own risk and are responsible for ensuring their own safety. By participating in mathleague.org events, schools, their students, and the students' parents agree not to hold mathleague.org responsible for accidents or injuries to participants, or for any other liability arising out of students' participation in mathleague.org contests.
     

[email protected]
All pages in the mathleague.org domain copyright 1999-2015 by mathleague.org