The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person contests against and alongside their peers. Created in 1983, it is the longest-running MATHCOUNTS program and is open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. Math topics range from basic elementary math through Geometry.
Practices will be conducted in a manner that prepares school representatives for the competition.
The Competition Series has 4 levels of competition—school, Chapter (district), State and National. Chapter, State and National competitions consist of 4 rounds—Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Round. Altogether the rounds are designed to take about 3 hours to complete.
Sprint Round: focuses on speed and accuracy. Students have 40 minutes to complete 30 math problems without a calculator. All students complete this task.
Target Round: focuses on problem-solving and mathematical reasoning. Students receive 4 pairs of problems and have 6 minutes to complete each pair, assuming the use of a calculator. All students complete this task.
Team Round: focuses on problem-solving and collaboration. Students have 20 minutes to complete 10 math problems, assuming the use of a calculator. Only the 4 students on a school's official team can take this round officially.
Countdown Round: focuses on speed and accuracy. Students have a maximum of 45 seconds per problem without a calculator. This is a head-to-head round for the top 10 competitors after the points are calculated from the Sprint and Target rounds.