Welcome to Berkeley mini Math Tournament 2024! BmMT 2024 will be in-person, with various satellite tournaments. The tournament will consist of 4 main rounds — Puzzle, Individual, Team, and Relay.

BmMT is open to middle school students in grades 8 or below. In particular, there is no lower age limit to compete in BmMT; advanced elementary students are welcome to compete. Coaches can register up to 5 students per team. There are no restrictions on how many teams/students a single coach can register. You do not have to be local to the Bay Area or California to register for BmMT.

Registration Information

Registration, Waivers, and Pricing

*All dates are in PT. That is, Regular Registration ends at 11:59 PM PT on 3/15/2024.

**For students facing financial hardship, please contact team@berkeley.mt for a fee waiver. We will not honor refunds during late registration.

Registration is performed on ContestDojo. Coaches may register up to 5 people per team, and ContestDojo will allow them to assign and modify teams up until tournament day.

All contestants are required to have their parent/guardian sign UC Berkeley’s consent waivers through this portal. Contestants will NOT be allowed to take the contest without having a signed liability and consent to treatment waiver.

Any questions about the ContestDojo portal should be directed to us at team@berkeley.mt.

Student Eligibility

• Students must be in grade 8 or below to be eligible for BmMT.
• Students do not have to be local to the California Bay Area or the U.S. to participate in BmMT. Please see “Satellites” for other options on tournaments.
• Coaches may register multiple teams. We ask that for every 2 teams, there is at least 1 parent chaperone.
• Due to room constraints, we will cut-off registration at 800 students on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Team Finder

Students may register as a team of 1, however, it is beneficial to compete on a team of at least 3 due to our scoring guidelines. For students who do not have a full team, we organized a Team-Finder document. Follow all outlined steps in the document.

BmMT Rounds

Puzzle Round (75 mins)

The puzzle round is a team-based round that consists of a variety of mathematical challenges designed to promote inductive reasoning and lateral thinking.

Individual Round (60 mins)

The individual round consists of 20 short answer questions spanning various subjects typically found in math competitions. This includes, but is not limited to, algebra, geometry, counting, probability, and number theory.

Team Round (60 mins)

The team round consists of 20 short answer questions. Students may work with their teams on these questions.

Relay Round (40 mins)

The relay round consists of 20 problems across various subjects in math. The key feature of this round is that some questions may depend on answers from one or multiple prior questions.

Tiebreakers

Tiebreakers shall only be to break ties for awards, not for honorable mention or distinguished honorable mention.

For non-puzzle rounds:

• Questions are ordered from hardest to easiest based on the number of people who answered correctly.
• Whoever solved the hardest problem among those tied is placed the highest, followed by the one who solved the next hardest, etc.

Puzzle:

• Puzzles are ordered by difficulty based on the average score of all teams on each puzzle.

• Teams are then compared on the total score of the hardest 1/3 of problems.

• If teams are still tied, they are compared on the score of the hardest puzzle, followed by the second hardest, etc.

• If teams are still tied, we go through the following:
  Combined score of the middle third of puzzles
  Individual scores of the middle third of puzzles
  Individual scores of the easiest puzzles.

• For example, the splits for puzzles would look like this:
  8 puzzle problems = 3 hardest / 2 middle / 3 easiest
  10 puzzle problems = 3 hard / 4 mid / 3 easy
  12 puzzle problems = 4 hard / 4 mid / 4 easy

If students are still tied, we will run a tiebreaker round. If teams are still tied, the tie will stand. Tiebreaker qualifiers will be announced at the end of the Relay Round, and will be a 15-minute test. The test will consist of three questions, and be scored primarily on correctness and secondarily on submission time; that is, an earlier submission will be worth more than a later one with the same number of correct answers, but less than a later one with more correct answers.

Summary

Acceptable Answers

Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the acceptable test formatting document and common notation document for details on how their answers should be submitted. Answers not submitted in the listed formats will be graded as incorrect, even if equivalent.

Scoring

To calculate the individual score, we will take the average of every team member’s score on their individual portion if the team has 3, 4, or 5 members. If the team has fewer than that many members, we will add 0’s until the team has reached at least 3 scores, of which we will take the average.

While individuals are allowed to register a 1-person team, we highly encourage students without a team to use the Team-Finder to create a team of at least 3.

Scores for a given round will be normalized by either the top 10 scores or the top 10% score, whichever is greater.

Schedule

The event will run from 8:00 AM to 6:30 PM.

Activities

Student Activities

Countdown [Dwinelle 145] Countdown is an individual activity where competitors will race to see who can correctly answer simple math questions the quickest! 64 students will enter, going through a single elimination bracket until only one remains!

Estimathon [Dwinelle 155] A team-based contest that combines trivia, game theory, strategy, and mathematical thinking. Teams of ~3 will be under a time limit to work on a set of 13 Fermi-style problems.

Origami [Hearst Field Annex A1] Do you want to bring home a cute souvenir from BmMT? Come make your own origami dice! We will be offering multiple paper patterns and instructions, and teaching from the basics of modular origami. No prior craft experience is needed!

Minigames [Dwinelle 215 & 219] Would you like to play a game??? Many games??? Many minigames??? Compete against students in classic math challenges. See who can manipulate numbers through factoring, operations, and tricks in a variety of games

Parent Activities

9:00 AM: Po Shen Loh Talk [Dwinelle 155] Come join us for a 90 minute talk featuring CMU Professor, founder of Expii, and USA IMO coach Po-Shen Loh.

11:00AM: Campus Tours [Dwinelle 155] Take a walk around and learn what makes the UC Berkeley campus so unique.

Coach Lounge

We've also assigned two rooms: Dwinelle 225 and Dwinelle 279 as silent rooms in case you wish to work / grade assignments in peace. Each room has a capacity of ~15-20 people.

Day of Logistics

When you get here

Head into Dwinelle Hall whether you checked in online or not. If you have not yet checked in, you'll need to do so in Dwinelle 145. If you have checked in online, you'll need to pick up your t-shirts and materials for the tournament in Dwinelle 155.

Room Assignments

BmMT will give out room assignments to teams where they will take every test during the day. Classroom assignments will be posted closer to the competition date.

Awards

We will be running awards in three different auditoriums! To minimize the chaos, we've pre-assigned where everyone should head to get to awards, based on contestDojo organization name:

Dwinelle 145: A-B
Dwinelle 155: C-Ra
Hearst Field Annex A1: Re-Z

Frequently Asked Questions

Are calculators or other reference material allowed?

Graph paper and calculators are prohibited, but protractors, rulers, and compasses are permitted. Blank white scratch paper will be provided for all participants. All answers must be exact, reduced, and simplified. Illegible answers will not be graded. Cheating in any form will not be tolerated, and failure to comply with all rules may result in immediate and irreversible disqualification.

Can elementary school students compete? What if I don’t have a team?

Yes! BmMT is open to any student in 8th grade or below, including those who haven’t entered middle school. While students are allowed to compete as individuals under “LAST_NAME Homeschool” or some other variation, we highly recommend that students compete on a team of at least 3 due to our scoring guidelines. To calculate the overall Individual score, we will take the average of every team member’s score on their individual portion if the team has 3, 4, or 5 members. If the team has less than that many members, we will add 0’s until the team has reached at least 3 scores, of which we will take the average.

How are awards handled?

Awards will be physically presented to contestants at BmMT 2024’s closing ceremony.

I’m in a different timezone or non-local and can’t compete live. What are my options?

There will be BmMT Satellite competitions held through our partners across the globe for competitors wishing to compete in a different time zone.

Will lunch be provided?

Lunch is not provided for BmMT 2024. Students, coaches and parents are free to find food in Berkeley. Restaurants can be found on the south side of campus (~5 minute walk from home rooms) and downtown (~15 minute walk from home rooms).

Where can I find parking / How can I get around Berkeley?

BmMT will not be providing parking or travel arrangements for students — it is up to coaches and/or parents to handle travel logistics. There are a number of parking garages around the campus, including Underhill Structure, Lower Hearst Structure, and the RSF garage. In addition, UC Berkeley campus is very public transport friendly. If you are staying in Emeryville, Bus Line 36 will take you directly to campus, and the Downtown Berkeley BART station is next to campus.