FARML 2020 Information

On the day of FARML, if you need any assistance, please reach out to your coach first. If your coach is unavailable or cannot help, send an email to our tech support team at onlinecontests@mathleague.org

mathleague.org is proud to work with Andy Niedermaier (@generating on AoPS) to present this year’s FARML test on May 16. Because ARML has been canceled this year, we want to encourage all ARML coaches to field one or more teams for this event if possible so we can give our students a chance to compete as a team this year against the teams they would normally see at ARML. In order to foster a greater sense of community, this year’s FARML will be run as a live event in Zoom with testing, optional community activities, and - if things go according to plan - a live results presentation.

The schedule for May 16 will be as follows; all times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4:00):

11:30am - Zoom link sent and room opens for check-in
12:00pm - Individual round starts
1:15pm - Power question starts
2:30pm - Power question grading break and optional community activities
4:30pm - Team round starts
5:00pm - Relay round starts
5:30pm - Announcement of results

Teams that are able to gather in person may do so, but because the contest administration will take place over Zoom, teams will also be able to participate even if their students are confined to home. 15-member teams will each get their own Zoom breakout room to use for the power question and team round, and we will also be giving out details later for how to collaborate on the relay round if students are not in the same place.

Each 15-member team must have a designated coach and be tied to a specific geographic region, and existing ARML coaches will be granted deference in terms of forming teams within their traditional boundaries (for instance, you can't just sign up a random Houston team unless the Texas coach decides not to organize a team for FARML). Multi-team regions should identify with the same region name, but each 15-member team within that region may create its own name to distinguish itself from the other teams in the region (for instance, if Texas has three teams, they might be called Texas Gold, Texas Silver, and Texas Oil). The contest organizers have final decision-making authority regarding the eligibility of teams.

Standard ARML rules and scoring will apply to FARML this year, except for the relay round. The relay round will be collaborative (all three students may work together on all three subquestions), PLUS each round will be 9 minutes long with a final opportunity to hand in an answer for 1 point at 9 minutes. Please note that unlike previous FARMLs, this year DOES include a power question, and Andy recommends that teams bring graph paper to the power question (thus graph paper is specifically permitted for the power question); teams may also use word processing software (eg. Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Overleaf, etc.) to prepare their power question submissions. We will be starting with the individual round because that will give coaches a chance to verify who has shown up and make any last minute adjustments to team assignments before the power question. We have built in a break in the testing to flatten the power question grading curve and give the grading team time to grade the submissions.

During the grading break we will have a number of optional "community activities" that participants can join. We are working on a schedule of activities for the community activities and will release that later. Maybe there will be a guts contest, maybe Simon will talk about his Favorite Factoring Trick, maybe there will be a karaoke room, who knows? In fact, *we* don't even know what these activities will be yet, and that's where you come in: please email us at farml@mathleague.org if you have any ideas for a session you would like to run or would like to participate in.

More detailed information, including a meeting room link and a schedule of community activities, will be emailed to participants on May 14. For those of you who are unable to participate in the live contest, the complete FARML test will be posted on this page and on AoPS after the announcement of results. If you have any questions, you can reach the organizing committee at farml@mathleague.org. If you are the head coach for a region, please email us at farml@mathleague.org with a description of your region's geographical boundaries and we will set your region up in our system and give you a link to register your assistant coaches and students. We ask that coaches register their teams by May 13 so we have time to follow up with you and make sure you are prepared for the contest. We look forward to seeing your team on May 16!

(FARML is an independent test written by Andy Niedermaier, and FARML2020 is an unofficial event sponsored by mathleague.org. Neither FARML nor FARML2020 are affiliated with ARML, but we are grateful to ARML for providing inspiration for the test format and for the spirit of mathematical community we are attempting to build with this event.)