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mathleague.org Policies for Elementary, Middle, and High School Contests
Please email us if you have a question that is not addressed in this section. Violation of these policies is considered fraud and will result in disqualification and possible further sanctions. These policies were last updated September 12, 2024 to include rules about school membership that already appeared several times elsewhere on our website. Please note that each contest and its respective tests will have additional rules that can be found in the relevant sections of our website.
- Definition of a school: In order for a school to participate in our contests, mathleague.org must have a current membership form on file from the school for the level of contest(s) the school intends to participate in. In order to be considered a school for purposes of our contests, the school must be an accredited, transcript-issuing public or private school, or a transcript-issuing non-accredited private school or home school organization that is in compliance with the relevant local laws for establishing such a school. mathleague.org reserves the right to require a transcript from a school or other documentation if it requires further clarification regarding a school's or student's status. An after-school program, tutoring center, or community organization is presumptively assumed NOT to be a school for purposes of these rules unless it issues transcripts and there are at least some students who spend more than 50% of their total instructional time in that setting.
- School membership: We require a membership form to be filled out each year for every school whose students will be competing in our contests. This form ensures that each school is uniquely identified in our system with the contact information of an adult (the school's Sponsor) who will serve for that school year as the primary point of contact for participants who attend that school. We prefer that the Sponsor be an employee of the school if the school is willing to nominate a Sponsor, so any parents or outside coaches of students who attend schools without an active membership should ask the school to have an employee fill out the membership form. If the school chooses not to have an employee serve as Sponsor, any adult who is willing to take on the responsibilities of a Sponsor may fill out the membership form so that students from the school may participate in our contests. Please note that in order to ensure the procedure has been followed properly, any parent or outside coach who signs up as a Sponsor will be required to provide the name of the person at the school whom they asked to fill out the form but chose not to.
- Home schools: A group of home schooled students from within the same US state may affiliate under the name of an organization that mathleague.org will recognize as a school for the purposes of competition. The name of the school must include the words "home school" or some variation that will make it clear that the school is a home school organization. mathleague.org reserves the right to require a home school organization to define the geographical boundaries of its service area at any time and for any reason, and to determine whether the boundaries are reasonable. A home schooled student's declared grade level must be equal to the grade level that student would be assigned to if the student enrolled in a public or private school in the student's state of residence. Home school students outside the US must contact us prior to registering for a membership so we can approve your geographical boundaries.
- Grade levels: Our school year runs from August 1 to July 31 and students will be assigned the same grade level for the entire school year. When registering for a qualifying contest, each student must determine what grade level they will be in on the last day they attend school prior to April 1 and report that grade level when registering for the contest. When registering for a Championship Round (District, State, National, or International), each student must use the same grade level they used for the qualifying contest(s).
- Participation: In order to register for a contest, each student must identify with the school where they spend more than 50% of their instructional time. This school must be listed on our current membership roster and fit the definition of a school as described above, and the student must be enrolled in that school in a grade no higher than grade 6 for elementary school contests, grade 8 for middle school contests, or grade 12 for high school contests. If there is no school that fits our definition of a school where the student spends more than 50% of their instructional time, the student's parent or coach should contact us so we can issue a ruling on which school that student belongs to for purposes of our contests. Please note that this rule makes it mathematically impossible for a student to have a choice between two or more schools to register with for one of our contests. mathleague.org reserves the right to require documentation, at any time or for any reason, to verify which school a student attends.
- Team formation: For the Team Round, participants from a given school should be arranged into teams of one to four students for elementary or middle school contests or one to six students for high school contests. For the Power Round (high school only), participants from a given school should be arranged into teams of one to six students. For the Relay Round (high school only), participants from a given school should be arranged into teams of one to three students. All team members must be registered with the same school. If team awards are given by grade level the team will be eligible for awards in the grade level of the most advanced student on the team.
- Equipment: Any calculator approved for use on the SAT is acceptable for the Power Round (high school only), Team Round, and Target Round. Students may use multiple calculators and are not required to clear calculator memories before testing. Students must bring their own calculators and pencils or pens to the contest; scratch paper will be provided when appropriate. No other equipment (such as protractors, cell phones, etc.) may be on the student's desk during testing. [Note: mathleague.org is not affiliated in any way with the SAT, the College Board, or collegeboard.org.]
- School classification: While some local contests choose to offer a separate awards category for certain groups (this may be called "Division B", "Small Schools", "Junior Varsity", or something similar), mathleague.org does not offer any official recognition for these categories or provide any support in its grading system for calculating such results. Local contests may not force a school or group of students to compete in any such separate category if the participants prefer not to. mathleague.org does not make a distinction between groups in different classifications in determining who qualifies for the next tier, so all students have the same opportunity to qualify for the next tier of competition regardless of their designation at the local contests.
- Junior high students: Junior high students (students in grades lower than 9) may compete in mathleague.org high school contests and participate on the same team as high school students. Junior high students may also compete in the State/National/International Championships if they qualify, where separate prizes may be awarded for students below grade 9 depending on registration numbers. Not all local contests award individual prizes to junior high students though, and junior high students may not be awarded individual prizes that are designated for 9th through 12th grade students. Junior high students may only compete on the team of the high school that they are zoned to attend based on the district's residency policy. In cases where a high school consists of only grades 10-12, coaches may bring 9th graders onto the team as long as every such 9th grader is zoned to attend that high school based on the district's residency policy.
- Crossing geographical boundaries: A school may only attend the District, State, or National Championship in the district, state, or nation where the school is located. For in-person qualifying contests, students and schools may attend any contest that allows them to participate (this includes all corporate contests, but some contests run by our partners may require participants to attend school in their region in order to attend a contest), and any students who end up on the qualifying list will be qualified for the first tier of postseason competition in their region. For instance, if a school in Council Bluffs IA attends a qualifying contest in Omaha NE, its students may qualify for the Iowa State Championship if their scores are high enough. Please note that for online contests participants may not sign up for a contest that is listed for a geographical area where their school is not located.
- Substitutions for the District, State, National, and International Championships: Schools with students participating at the high school State, National, or International Championships are allowed one substitution for every six students who qualify for the State, National, or International Championships. To determine the exact number of substitutions allowed, take the number of students from your school that are qualified for the State, National, or International Championship, divide by 6, and if this number is not an integer round up to the nearest integer. Any student used as a substitute must have competed at a mathleague.org contest or in our in-school contest during the school year. All substitutes must attend the same school as the student who originally qualified, and substitutions may only be made for students who are unable to attend the Championship meet. No coach may deny a qualified student the opportunity to compete at a Championship meet in order to substitute another student if the original qualifier chooses to attend the Championship meet. No substitutions are allowed for the elementary or middle school Championships at any level.
- Translations: Students may not use any dictionaries or other reference materials at mathleague.org contests. All tests are offered in English, but we translate each test (except for Countdown and Power Qeuestion) into Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, and often translate tests into other languages as well. Please note that most of our translations are facilited using Google Translate, but we are happy to accept volunteer help to create bespoke translations as long as we can ensure the timeliness, accuracy, and security of such translations. Feel free to contact us if you would like to volunteer to translate any tests for us. Students taking online or on-demand tests who wish to take the test in Chinese, Russian, or Spanish may select their preferred language when logging into the test and do not need to notify us in advance. Students taking in-person tests who wish to take the test in Chinese, Russian, or Spanish must register at least two weeks in advance of the test and indicate their preferred language when they register. Students who prefer to take the test in any language other than English, Chinese, Russian, or Spanish should contact us at least two weeks prior to the test and we will determine whether a translation can be made available. Selecting a language when you register for a contest does not in itself guarantee the availability of that language. Whenever languages other than English are available for the tests or the rules, the English version will be controlling and any disputes regarding content will be adjudicated based on the English version. Participants must decide for themselves the extent to which they wish to rely on the content of the translations.
- Test Security: No student may attend two different contests with the same Release Number (sites grouped under the heading of the Release Number on the website), and no student may attend any contest for which they have already seen any of the test materials. Students and coaches participating in any given contest are not to discuss the test questions or answers with anyone who did not attend the contest until after the last scheduled meet using that Release Number.
- Privacy: Any student's name, grade, school, and scores (and photos, if any are taken) could potentially be reproduced on the mathleague.org website and/or through other media. Any schools or individuals who wish to avoid such publicity must contact mathleague.org prior to the start of the contest for which they wish to opt out of such publicity. While mathleague.org cannot be responsible for the actions of media outside its direct control, it will make an effort to communicate all privacy requests to any other media present at the contest.
- Conduct: All participants should be familiar with our Conduct Standards available at http://mathleague.org/conduct.pdf. This document outlines some of the rights and responsibilities each participant has at our contests, as well as the consequences for committing infractions.
- Safety: Students and schools attend mathleague.org contests at their own risk and are responsible for ensuring their own safety. By participating in mathleague.org events, schools, their students, and the students' parents agree not to hold mathleague.org responsible for accidents or injuries to participants, or for any other liability arising out of students' participation in mathleague.org contests.
- Accomomodations: If a student cannot attend a Championship meet in the designated test center at the designated time for religious or medical reasons, please contact us at least two weeks prior to the contest for more information about how we can accommodate the affected student(s). If a student wishes to request on-site accommodations at a qualifying contest or a Championship meet for medical reasons (for example, a visually impaired student who needs a large print test or a student with a broken hand who needs help writing their answers), please contact us at least two weeks prior to the contest for more information about how we can accommodate the affected student(s). mathleague.org may, at its discretion, require documentation from a licensed physician to accompany any request for accommodations based on medical reasons. If a medical emergency warranting accommodations arises within two weeks of the contest, please notify us as early as possible and we will attempt to expedite the process. mathleague.org's determination of what accommodations are reasonable and acceptable is final, and all participants or their agents who request accommodations agree to be bound by mathleague.org's decision. Under no circumstances will any accommodations be granted that fundamentally alter the nature of the testing experience (such as allowing students to collaborate on the Target Round or providing multiple choice options on the Number Sense Round).
- Schedule Conflicts: We attempt to avoid schedule conflicts with other math contests whenever possible, but we cannot avoid every possible conflict. Members of our community can help us avoid schedule conflicts by proactively reaching out to us when they know of other scheduled contests that may end up conflicting with events we have yet to schedule, and conversely by reaching out to other contests asking them to avoid our dates if we schedule our contests before they do. Once posted to our website our contests cannot be rescheduled; it is the student's responsibility to resolve any conflicts with school or other events. If a student cannot attend a qualifying round contest because of a schedule conflict, the student is encouraged to attend one of the other qualifying tests that month or some other month. Our schedule is set up so that every student has at least two online contests to choose from each month during the qualifying season, in addition to any in-person contests that are scheduled in their area. In the event of an unresolvable conflict with a District or State Championship, an online makeup contest may be available after the regularly scheduled Championship contests at that level. If we are able to offer a makeup test, only one date and time will be available, with no further makeups or rescheduling, and there will be an additional administration fee to participate. Students who participate in a makeup contest will only be eligible to advance to the next level if they qualify as "wild cards"; no awards will be given for makeup contests, students' scores will not be counted toward their school's sweepstakes score, and students will not receive an official ranking within their state or district. There is no makeup contest for any National or International Championship.
- Appeals: mathleague.org is committed to the accuracy of our grading process and our results. If you believe your student or team was assigned an incorrect score due to incorrect grading or errors in the answer key, or was improperly excluded from the list of qualifiers for the next level, please follow the instructions at this link so we can assist you.
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