CMIMC Math

Our flagship spring mathematics competition.

General Rules

  • A student may leave to use the restroom during the exam, but they must turn in their phone to a proctor to do so.
  • No computational aids other than a writing utensil are allowed.
  • Cheating Policy:
    • If a student is caught cheating on an individual round, they will get a -X for that round, where X is the score of the highest scoring individual on that round.
    • If a student is caught cheating on a team-based round, their team will get a -X for that round, where X is the score of the highest scoring team on that round.
    • If a proctor has reasonable suspicion to believe that a student is cheating, the proctor reserves the right to declare cheating.
  • Grading decisions (including TCS) can not be protested, but answer protests are welcome in the designated Discord channel.

Individual Rounds

There are three different rounds: Algebra & Number Theory, Combinatorics & Computer Science, and Geometry. Each student will take all 3 exams.

  • Each round has 10 problems (and a tiebreaker) to be solved in 50 minutes.
  • Harder/less-solved questions are worth more points.
  • NO communication with anyone is allowed during the round.

Scoring & Tiebreakers

The tiebreaker question will ONLY be used as a tiebreaker. It will not actually add any points to your score.

  • People who submitted ANY answer to a tiebreaker will automatically win ties over those who did not submit an answer.
  • For those who submitted a tiebreaker answer, whoever is closer to the correct answer will win the tie.
  • Among students who submitted the same tiebreaker answer (possibly blank), CMIMC will use an arbitrary tiebreaking method.

Team Round

A 40 minute test with 10 problems to be completed as a team.

  • Each question is worth the same number of points.
  • Communication within the team is permitted.
  • Answers must be reasonably simplified.

TCS Round

A 60 minute test with 2-3 problems to be completed as a team.

  • Each question is worth the same number of points.
  • Communication within the team is permitted.
  • Solutions should be written in English.

Solution Format:

  • Number all pages of the solution.
  • State the bound being proven clearly before each proof.
  • Only submit one bound per problem.

Overall Rankings

Individual Rankings

Calculated by summing the student's individual scores across all 3 rounds. Ties will be broken using the same procedure as described in the Individual Rounds section.

Team Rankings

Calculated by weighing and summing the scores on the TCS, Team Round, and each student's individual score.

Detailed Scoring Guide

For a more in-depth explanation of how scores are calculated, please view the document below.