How It Works

PLEASE NOTE: due to COVID and the Bussing shortage all over the county many meets will be held with just the Brighton team at Brighton. Also there is not expected to be a county or state meet.

Monroe County Math League provides a venue for students from schools in the Monroe County area to participate in monthly challenging math competitions after school from October through February. The season culminates in a county-wide all-day competition in March, usually hosted at an area college (like St. John Fisher). The top students from the county then attend the state competition in April.

Each month, four of the participating high schools host a competition. During the competition, students participate in three out of six of the categories. In each category, students have 10 minutes to independently solve three challenging math problems related to the given topic. Points are awarded only for correct final answers: 1 point for question 1; 2 points for question 2; and 3 points for question 3. Students are assigned to teams of ten, with no more than four seniors per team and no more than eight upper-class students per team. The individual students' scores are added together to create a team score and determine the winning team at each site.

At the county meet, teams compete in a variety of events. A power question whose solution requires in-depth explanation is completed as a team and usually involves several branches of mathematics. A set of team questions, which are similar in content to the individual questions, also allows students to work together as a team. Next, relay questions require students to independently solve them, but the answer to the first question is used to complete the second question, whose answer is then used to complete the third and final question. Only the final answer of each relay question set is graded. Students also independently answer questions that are similar in scope and content to the monthly questions.