Format (ISMC 2017)

Please read past paper of ISMC to familiarize the format of each event of the contest.

Group Event: 

1. A team is formed by 2 Junior (S.1 - 2) and 2 Senior (S.3 - 4) participants from the same school.

    (According to the team list sent by the schools)

2. Time allowed of group event is 1 hour.

3. The paper consists of 6 long questions. Each question is worth 30 marks and the total score is 180.

4. Contestants should write down steps of working, proofs, as well as the final answer, in the space provided

    for each question.

5. Unless otherwise stated, answers should be given in exact values in decimal system and in the simplest

    form. No approximation will be accepted.

Individual Event: 

1. S.1 and S.2 students should take part in Junior Event while S.3 and S.4 students should take part in Senior 

    Event.

2. Time allowed of individual event is 1.5 hours. The total score is 150 marks.

3. This paper consists of 2 Sections: (A) Short questions and (B) Long questions.

4. Unless otherwise stated, answers should be given in exact values in decimal system and in the simplest

    form. No approximation will be accepted.

(Section A - Short Questions)

5. Section A is divided into 3 sections, each consisting of 5 short questions, with 4, 6 and 8 marks respectively.  The        total score of this section is 90.

6. Contestants should write down answers only in this section. Steps and procedures are not necessary for            short questions.

7. If the question requires the contestant to list all possible answer(s), no marks will be given to this question if 

    there exists any missing / wrong answer.

(Section B - Long Questions)

8. Section B consists of 3 long questions. with one corresponding to the difficulty of each section in short                questions. Each long question carries 20 marks. and the total score is 60.

9. Contestants should write down steps of working, proofs, as well as the final answer, on the Answer Sheet.

10. Correct answer with complete solution merits full marks. Even if you fail to solve the problem, partial credits 

      may still be awarded under the following situations:

      (a) Correct answer(s) (Only account for about 20% of total score of the question)

      (b) Incomplete solution(s)

      (c) Significant observation or creative idea

      (d) Discussion on non-trivial special case(s)

Overall Results:

The overall score of a team: (sum of score of 4 team members in individual event) + 5/3 x (Score of group event)

If there is a tie...

For individual prizes, if there is a tie, we will consider the followings in order: 

(i) Score in Section B

(ii) Score in Section A (8-mark questions)

For group prizes, if there is a tie, we will consider the followings in order: 

(i) Score in group event

(ii) Highest individual score among 4 team members

(iii) 2nd highest individual score among 4 team members

(iv) 3rd highest individual score among 4 team members

Note: If a team member does not take part in individual event, we will consider him/her as 0 marks.