Some frequently asked questions about the Austin Math Circle Practice MATHCOUNTS
What is the structure of this contest?
This contest follows the MATHCOUNTS competition format, which means it consists of four rounds:- The Sprint Round consists of 30 short-answer problems to be done individually in 40 minutes without the use of calculators. Each correct answer is worth one point.
- The Target Round consists of four pairs of two questions each to be done individually in six minutes per pair. Calculators are allowed. Each correct answer is worth two points. Thus a perfect individual score is 30+2*8 = 46.
- The Team Round consists of ten questions to be done by the whole team (of at most four students) working together in 20 minutes. Calculators are allowed. The score of a team at the end of the competition is the average of the individual (Sprint and Target) scores of its members, plus twice the number of correct answers on the Team round. Thus a perfect team score is (30+2*8) + 2*10 = 66.
- The Countdown Round is a single elimination bracket in which the top-scoring students on the Sprint and Target rounds compete head-to-head. Both students are given a single problem to work at the same time, and the point is awarded to whoever buzzes in with the correct answer first.
What is the difficulty level of this contest?
We aim to make our contest roughly the same difficulty level as MATHCOUNTS State. The previous four contests are available here if you want to get a feel for the difficulty, but note that the inaugural 2018 contest was extra hard and turned out to be closer to MATHCOUNTS National in difficulty level. (Also note that the 2021 countdown round was infamously hard. This was partially by design, since it was held online and we had to make sure there were no instant buzz questions.)Who can compete at this contest?
Any student from Texas in 8th grade or below is welcome to compete with us. We recommend that students compete with their school teams, but if nobody else from your school is coming, you are also welcome to compete with us as an individual.Who should compete at this contest?
The Austin Math Circle Practice MATHCOUNTS was conceived with two goals in mind: to provide a mock contest that helps serious competitors to prepare for the State meet, and to provide an opportunity for newcomers and more casual competitors to engage with the math community outside of the Chapter and State meets. With that being said, we do not want any student who comes to this contest to run out of things to do during the written tests, as this is a very demoralizing experience. For this reason, we recommend that students who compete with us should generally be able to score at least 20 points (out of 46) on recent MATHCOUNTS Chapter competitions. If you are brand-new to contest math, or if you've practiced on MATHCOUNTS Chapter or School tests before but aren't consistently able to score this high, you are still welcome to compete with us if you want to, but there are other MATHCOUNTS-type contests that will likely be more approachable to you, such as the Mathletes in Action (SPURS) event in the fall, and the MATHCOUNTS Chapter meet itself.Where is the contest?
We plan to hold this year's contest in the Carter Auditorium at the John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center at St. Edward's University.What should I bring?
Make sure you bring pencils and a calculator. Scratch paper will be provided at the contest. Any calculator without a QWERTY keyboard can be used during the Target and Team Rounds. No other tools (including but not limited to graph paper, compasses, and protractors) will be permitted, matching the format of an official MATHCOUNTS competition.How much does it cost to compete?
Registration will cost $6 per student. This is to cover the cost of printing and awards. (We never run this event for profit. Any extra money that we do not spend will be donated to the MATHCOUNTS foundation after the contest.)(Back to Main Page)