Welcome, New Coaches!
How Does the 2020-2021 Competition Series Work?
Due to COVID-19, this year's MATHCOUNTS Competition Series has been modified. Typically, competitions are conducted as in-person events, but just for this year, we have decided to conduct online competitions at each level leading up to the National Competition.
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Schools register in the fall and work with students during the year. Students will have the opportunity to take 4 online practice competitions beginning in October.
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Between 1 and 15 individuals from each school participate in the 2021 Chapter Competition, which will be available online February 5 at 1:00pm ET through February 6 at 1:00pm ET
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The top scoring student from each school and the top 20% of individuals from each chapter advance to the 2021 Chapter Invitational Competition, taking place online February 25 at 7:00pm ET.
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Top students from the Chapter Invitational Competition advance to the 2021 State Competition, taking place online March 25 at 7:00pm ET.
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The top individuals from each state receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2021 Raytheon Technologies MATHCOUNTS National Competition, which takes place May 8-11 in Washington, DC.
What's On the 2020-2021 Test?
Sprint Round
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30 problems to solve in 40 minutes
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no calculators allowed
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focus on speed and accuracy
Target Round
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8 problems to solve in 24 minutes (given in four 6-minute pairs)
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calculators used
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focus on problem solving and mathematical reasoning
Team Round
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10 problems to solve in 20 minutes
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calculators used
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focus on problem-solving and collaboration
National level only 2020-2021. The online practice competitions will have team rounds.
Countdown Round
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maximum of 45 seconds per problem
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no calculators allowed
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focus on speed and accuracy
National level only 2020-2021. Watch the video of the 2019 Countdown Round webcast to see what this round is like.
The Role of a Competition Coach
Every good coach should:
- Schedule and run an adequate number of practices for participating students (these can be online).
- Help motivate and encourage students throughout the program year.
- Select the 1-15 Mathletes who will represent the school at the Chapter Competition in February.
- Ensure students can log in at the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) website and are familiar with the AoPS Competition Platform.
Coaches do not need to:
- Know how to solve every MATHCOUNTS problem. Most of our resources include detailed solutions to problems, and many coaches have told us that they themselves improved in mathematics through coaching!
- Spend their own money to be effective. See free resouces below for why!
MATHCOUNTS Practice Plans
These MATHCOUNTS Practice Plans are virtual mini-lessons, each 45-60 minutes, that cover a particular math topic. The topics were chosen to help expose Mathletes variety of problem types and problem-solving strategies, similar to what they will encounter in competition
Practice plans have four parts:
- Warm-up: To warm-up, Mathletes will start with a short problem set to practice related skills that will be expanded upon throughout the practice plan.
- The Problems: To introduce a common type of MATHCOUNTS competition problem and/or a helpful problem-solving strategy, Mathletes will watch a video which solves and expains the approach to two or three problems.
- Piece it Together: Building on the warm-up and the video, Mathletes will combine their prior knowledge and the strategies they learned to solve another set of related problems.
- Optional Extension: Each practice plan will have an activity, puzzle or game as an option to end with. The extension will be related to the concept the problems explored and give Mathletes an opportunity to have a little fun and/or be creative with the problem-solving skills!
Making the Most of Your Free Resources
2020-2021 MATHCOUNTS School Handbook
Hard copy mailed to every coach + free online resource for registered coaches at the Coach Dashboard.
- 200 problems designed to prepare students for every test round plus 50 more online
- answer key + step-by-step explanations of how to solve each problem
- watch Using the MATHCOUNTS School Handbook
Past MATHCOUNTS Competitions
Free online public resource for everyone
- last year's official School, Chapter and State Competitions
- each competition includes all 4 rounds + answer keys
Interactive MATHCOUNTS Platform
Free online public resource for everyone
- past and current handbook and competition problems
- lots of interactive and collaborative features for students and coaches to use
Powered by NextThought, one of our national sponsors.
MATHCOUNTS Trainer
Free public resource for everyone online + through the App Store
- app featuring lots of past MATHCOUNTS problems
- real-time leaderboards for students to compete with each other for the top score
Presented by Art of Problem Solving, one of our national sponsors.
Problem of the Week (POTW)
Free online public resource for everyone
- new problem released each Monday
- each problem is multi-step and relates to a timely event
- archive of a full year of problems
MATHCOUNTS Minis
Free online public resource for everyone
- new video released each month
- each video covers a particular math skill and comes with a downloadable problem set
Featuring Richard Rusczyk, MATHCOUNTS alumnus and founder of Art of Problem Solving.
Learn More
If you'd like more information:
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Read through the Rules & FAQ, including the Official Rules + Procedures.
You can lead your students to success in the Competition Series using the free resources above, but if you are interested in purchasing additional materials or prizes for your students:
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Learn more about OPLET, the Online Problem Library and Extraction Tool.
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Browse our prep books available online at the MATHCOUNTS store.
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Check out giveaways and MATHCOUNTS swag online at the MATHCOUNTS store.
Contact us anytime at info@mathcounts.org! We're happy to help with any questions you have about coaching, the Competition Series or resources available to you.
