News for Coordinators

In October, we announced the official Chapter Competition will be held online, but some details were still being finalized. Below is some new, important information we are eager to share with you!

What’s the scoop on the official 2022 MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition?

Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022
Format: Online via the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) Contest Platform. Competitors must login to their Student Portal at https://artofproblemsolving.com/contests/mathcounts to access the competition.
When: Students must start the competition between 12pm ET and 8pm ET. We are offering this window to allow coaches the flexibility to proctor the competition outside of or during usual school hours.
Time Required: Students should allow approximately 90 minutes to complete the competition (Sprint and Target Rounds) once they begin. Team competitors should plan for an additional 30 minutes.
Proctoring Requirements: All students are required to have a non-relative, adult proctor. Coaches, another teacher/administrator or unrelated adult may serve as a proctor. Proctoring should be in-person where possible, but virtual proctoring will be allowed. If students are unable to secure a non-relative, adult proctor, they may use the MATHCOUNTS-approved proctoring service, MonitorEDU. (Check out the site in advance for details/cost.)
IMPORTANT Warning: Students should take the 2 practice competitions under the same conditions – the same laptop, location and Internet connection – they will be taking the official competition. This ensures students (1) know their login information for the AoPS portal, (2) are familiar with how the AoPS portal works, and (3) know their Internet connection/security restrictions work with the AoPS Contest Platform. This is especially important when using school-provided Internet with tighter security settings.
Ideal Testing Situation:
(1) Your school’s Mathletes experience the excitement of reaching the Chapter Competition by gathering together at school for the big event!
(2) Each student takes the competition at the same time (obviously using their own device and working independently on the Sprint and Target Rounds) with the coach serving as the proctor.
(3) An additional adult is in the room in case the coach/official proctor needs to step away or needs to focus on a technical issue with a student.
(4) At the conclusion of everyone finishing the Sprint and Target Rounds, the four students on the team work together on the Team Round.
(5) When finished, all the Mathletes’ hard work throughout the season is celebrated!

BONUS! BONUS!

In addition to the official, online Chapter Competition, some volunteer chapter coordinators are hosting in-person BONUS competitions where possible. (These do not take the place of the official, online Chapter Competitions.) Coordinators who are planning to host a BONUS competition will reach out to coaches with details; you also can contact them with questions. Your specific coordinator’s information can be found online. Please support coordinators’ efforts and give your students this in-person experience if it is provided!

State and National Competitions

State coordinators determine their advancement policies from Chapter to State. At a minimum, the top four scorers on the online Chapter Competition (Sprint + Target scores) from each chapter will advance to their State Competition. The State and National Competitions are still being planned as in-person events.

We’re looking forward to Competition Season!
Answers to many other questions are available on our FAQ page here. If you and your students have not already set up your accounts on the AoPS Contest Portal, please do so ASAP. We have step-by-step instructions for both coach account creation and student account creation to help guide you. Practice Competition #1 is already available! If you have any additional questions, please let us know. We will continue to stay in touch with coaches as the competition approaches.

–The MATHCOUNTS Team

MATHCOUNTS Chapter & State Coordinators,

Thank you for your patience over the past several weeks as we considered the results of September’s Coordinator Survey and the feedback we’ve received. Based on those survey results and discussions we’ve had with many of you, it became apparent that a substantial number of coordinators (1) remain concerned about the potential health risks to participants and volunteers attending large, indoor gatherings and/or (2) face significant challenges in securing a venue for your Chapter and/or State Competitions and navigating COVID-related obstacles with volunteers, students, parents and coaches.

Survey Feedback

We sent the survey to 648 coordinators and received responses from 366 coordinators. Thank you!

• Of 281 chapter and state coordinators who had already begun planning their events, more than half noted it would be impossible or more difficult to find a venue this year due to capacity limitations, COVID-related restrictions, school requirements, liability concerns and other factors.
• 50% of chapter and state coordinators who noted a preference for either in-person or virtual competitions chose the latter. A significant number of coordinators who indicated a preference for in-person also mentioned in the Additional Comments section a concern about in-person competitions, even though that was their personal preference.

Since the survey, the national staff has met with the Coordinator Council to discuss options to address these concerns and to determine how best to proceed with this year’s Competition Series.

Program Year 2021-2022 Changes

First, this was an unbelievably tough decision to make. We were fortunate to have many different perspectives represented in our discussions; this made the discussions much better, but more difficult to reach a consensus. Please know everyone approached these decisions with the goal of doing what was right not only for the students, but also for MATHCOUNTS volunteers.

After careful consideration, (1) we do not believe we can require students to attend in-person events for the Chapter Competition this February and (2) we do not believe we can expect—or ask—500 chapter coordinators to each be responsible for hosting a large, in-person event. Therefore:

1. The official Chapter Competition will be hosted online for the 2021-2022 program year. State Competitions and the National Competition are still being planned as in-person events.
2. For chapter coordinators who are eager to host an in-person event and know they can do so safely, MATHCOUNTS will encourage, support and provide resources for unofficial, fun competition events in chapters. (MATHCOUNTS will provide Sprint, Target, Team and CDR materials.)
3. Advancement requirements to the State Competition will change. The required minimum from each chapter will change from “the top team and top two individuals not on the winning team” to “the top four individuals” on the Chapter Competition. State coordinators are encouraged to include more students, if possible. Starting with the minimum of the top four students, we can return to state coordinators setting their own advancement requirements, keeping in mind requirements must be consistent for every chapter within the state.

We fully recognize the tremendous benefit in-person competitions have for our students, coaches and volunteers. We were so hopeful to return to the normal MATHCOUNTS competition framework this year. However, numerous obstacles and considerations are keeping us from returning “to normal” all at once. That said, we will take significant steps toward “normal” this year by (1) planning for in-person state and national competitions and (2) supporting unofficial, in-person events at the local level, but the official Chapter Competition will be online.

As a national organization that supports over 500 local programs, 56 state programs and tens of thousands of middle school students nationwide and overseas, we have a tremendous obligation to consider the health and safety of our volunteers and students and to ensure a level of consistency in the implementation of the Competition Series. We considered numerous hybrid options, as well, but there was no hybrid option our staff could execute fairly and effectively.

We anticipate many questions and are eager to share our thinking with you. To that end, we’ve provided a separate document with many questions/answers/explanations. There are still many details to work out and not every question will be addressed at this time, but we felt it was critical to share this change as soon as possible so coordinators, coaches and students can adjust their planning and expectations accordingly.

Notification of this change will go out to registered coaches and the public on Wednesday, October 27. We will copy coordinators on the email to registered coaches so coordinators know when it was sent and what was communicated. Please allow us the opportunity to share this information with coaches and refrain from sharing this news until then. We will make it clear this change was just made and chapter coordinators will likely need time to determine whether they can host an unofficial chapter event. We encourage chapter coordinators to reach out to their registered coaches shortly after coaches are notified of the change to reassure them you will be in touch and share details as you have them.

In the coming weeks, we will be scheduling a coordinator webinar to share more details and answer questions. Until then, please review the information in the attached document and feel free to direct any immediate questions you may have to our office at info@mathcounts.org. As always, we appreciate your support, we value your commitment, and we look forward to working with you to make this year’s program a success.

Sincerely,

Kristen Chandler, CAE

Executive Director