The Department of Mathematical Sciences will not host its annual mathematics tournament in 2024.

The Georgia Southern Mathematics Tournament is an annual invitational tournament serving the East Central and Southeast regions of Georgia. You must receive an official invitation to participate.

The tournament is designed to recognize students' accomplishments in mathematics, to allow outstanding mathematics students to meet and compete with each other, and to promote public interest in mathematics.

Division of Competition

There are three categories of competition:

Varsity: Any students in grades 6 – 12 may compete in the Varsity Category.

               The emphasis will be on advanced high school mathematics.

Junior Varsity: Any students in grades 6 – 10 may compete in the Junior Varsity Category.

                The emphasis will be on the first two years of high school mathematics.

Middle School: Any students in grades 6 – 8 may compete in the Middle School Category.

                The emphasis will be on middle school mathematics.

NOTE: A student participating on a team for which that student is not eligible could cause that team to be disqualified.

Within each category, there will be three divisions. The Varsity and Junior Varsity Categories will be divided as follows:

Division I:   all GHSA AAAAAA, AAAAA, AAAA, and AAA schools

Division II:  all GHSA schools not in Division I

Division III: all private non-GHSA schools

The Middle School Category split for Division I and Division II will be made according to school size. Division III will consist of all private non-GHSA schools. Divisions I and II of the Varsity Category are qualifying divisions for the GCTM State Math Tournament.

Awards

• There will be first, second, and third place team awards and individual awards in each division of each category (a total of 54 awards).

• The Arthur G. Sparks Award of Excellence will be presented to students with a perfect score on the written test.

• Patricia B. Humphrey Mathematics Tournament Awards

  • The first-place individual winners of the Varsity Competition (Divisions I, II, and III) of the Annual Georgia Southern University Invitational Mathematics Tournament will receive a $1000 scholarship per year if they attend Georgia Southern University as a STEM major (for up to 4 years, provided they remain a STEM major and maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average). Should a student win his/her competition in multiple years, then he/she will be awarded the corresponding multiple scholarship amount per year. For example, two wins corresponds to $2000 per year. Should a divisional winner decline the scholarship offer, then the department chair (in consultation with the departmental scholarship committee) can offer the scholarship to the 2nd place or 3rd place winners until a student accepts the offer. Should fewer than 3 students accept the scholarship offer from the competition in a particular year, then the department chair will increase the scholarship amount per student per year (for example, if 2 attend, they would each receive $1500 per year). If none of the winners or second or third place winners accept this scholarship, the funds will be reserved for future years.

Format and Participants

Each school may enter at most 6 teams of four students per category. Partial teams may also enter, but they must pay an entire team fee. The total team score will be determined by the sum of the individual test scores plus the points earned during the ciphering match. The maximum number of points a team can earn is 960.

Written test:

All students in the Varsity and Junior Varsity Categories will complete a 90-minute written exam beginning at 10:00 AM. Students in the Middle School Category will complete a 60-minute exam beginning at 10:00 AM. The individual score for the 40 problem written exam is determined by the formula: 

Score = 40 + 4 (number correct) – (number incorrect)

The maximum score on the individual test is 200 points. The four individual scores will be combined for the team score on the written test.

Ciphering:

Each team will participate in ciphering matches during the afternoon to earn points to add to the team score. Each team member must participate in the ciphering match. The ciphering match will consist of two rounds. Each round will consist of one pair of students solving eight problems. If the students correctly respond to a problem in 1 minute, 10 points will be added to the team score. If a correct response is recorded within 2 minutes, 5 points will be added to the team score. The maximum ciphering score will be 160 points.

NO CALCULATORS may be used in any portion of this tournament.

Areas of Mathematics Covered

A majority of the problems will come from the subject areas of mathematics most often studied at the appropriate category level. A small sampling of problems are identified within the area of "puzzle" problems. Examples of previous tests may be found by clicking here.

Schedule of Main Events

  8:30 AM —   9:30 AM        Registration

10:00 AM — 11:30 AM       Written Tests

11:30 AM —   1:00 PM        Lunch

  1:00 PM —   2:30 PM        Ciphering

≈2:45 PM  —  3:30 PM          Awards

Meals

In addition to several dining establishments in Statesboro, meals may be purchased on campus at Chick-fil-A or Starbucks in the Russell Union or the Dining Commons.

Special Accommodations

If a student needs special accommodations on tournament day, please notify the tournament director as soon as possible before the date of the tournament.

Registration Fee

The registration fee will be $20 for each team (or partial team). No new teams may be added and no refunds for "no show" teams will be given on the day of the tournament.

Location

The tournament is held on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. Registration on the morning of the tournament is in the Russell Union. The address of the Russell Union is

85 Georgia Avenue

Statesboro, GA 30458

Other portions of the tournament will occur in the Math/Physics Building and Hanner Fieldhouse. Please see the following map for directions.