7/15/2019 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/harvardmit-mathematics-tournament-wikipedia-the-free-encyclopedia 1/4

7/3/13 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard–MIT_Mathematics_Tournament

Harvard–MIT Mathematics TournamentFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT) is an annual high school math competition started in

1998. The location of the tournament, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, alternates between Harvard University (even

ears) and MIT (odd years). The contest is written and staffed entirely by Harvard and MIT students, and is

considered to be one of the most prestigious high school math competitions in the world.

Contents

1 Tournament Format

1.1 Individual Round

1.2 Team Round

1.3 Guts Round

1.4 Other Events

2 Scoring and Awards

3 Difficulty

4 R esults

5 HMMT November 

6 S ponsors

7 R elated competitions

8 External links

Tournament Format

HMMT February is attended by teams of eight students each. Teams can represent a single school, or a regional

math team as large as a state. In recent years, teams have represented over 20 states, as well as Africa, Asia,

Europe, and South America.

HMMT Febr uary consists of three rounds: the Individual Round, the Team Round, and the Guts Round. No

calculator or computational aids of any kind are allowed during the contest.

Individual Round

The Individual Round consists of exams in Algebra, Combinatorics, and Geometry. Each of the three exams is 50

minutes in length and contains 10 questions. The exams are open-answer; that is, the answers given will be number

such as 7 or 11/20.

Team Round

7/15/2019 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/harvardmit-mathematics-tournament-wikipedia-the-free-encyclopedia 2/4

7/3/13 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard–MIT_Mathematics_Tournament

For the Team Round, the eight-person teams compete together on a 60-minute long test. The Team Round is a

collaborative event with proof-style problems, sometimes arranged into groups of several problems on the same

theme. Thorough justifications are required for full credit. The Team Round is worth a total of 400 points, and

 problems are weighted according to difficulty. The event is similar to an ARML Power Round, but the problems

are easier and more numerous. This round is targeted at teams comfortable with rigorous mathematical proofs.

Guts Round

The Guts Round is an 80-minute team event with 36 short-answer questions on an assortment of subjects, of 

varying difficulty and point values. Each team is seated in a predetermined spot, and the questions are divided into

groups of four. At the starting signal, each team sends a runner to an assigned problem station to pick up copies of

the first set of four problems for each team member. As soon as a team has answers for one problem set, the

runner may bring the answers to the problem station and pick up the next set. It is not expected that students will

finish all the problems. Grading is immediate and scores are posted in real time, resulting in an exciting atmosphere

for the competitors. The Guts round is worth a total of approximately 400 points.

Other Events

HMMT February also features events on the Friday evening prior to the tournament. Some of these events include

a dinner and social for students and coaches, and Mini-Events such as math talks about famous problems and

math-related games.

Scoring and Awards

HMMT February uses a unique scoring algorithm to score the competitors on the Individual Rounds. While the

 problems on these tests are weighted according to difficulty, they are done so after the testing has completed. As

explained here (http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/pdf/scoring_overview.pdf), this helps create a very fair method for

weighting problems according to their actual difficulty (as determined by how often and by whom they were solvedas opposed to their perceived difficulty prior to the tournament. The weights assigned to each problem are

calculated using a scoring algorithm (http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/pdf/scoring_technical.pdf) that takes into

account which problems were solved by which students. The weights of the problems on the Team and Guts

Rounds are given on the tests.

Prizes are given to the ten highest-scoring individuals overall, the top ten scorers on each of the subject rounds, the

ten highest-scoring teams on the Team Round (A and B), and the ten highest-scoring teams on the Guts Round.

The top ten teams overall will be named the Sweepstakes winners. The calculation of Sweepstakes scores is

roughly half individual round performance and half collaborative round performance.

ifficulty

The difficulty of the competition is compared to that of ARML, the AIME, or the Mandelbrot Competition, though

it is considered to be a bit harder than these contests. The contest organizers state that, "HMMT, arguably one of

the most difficult math competitions in the United States, is geared toward students who can comfortably and

confidently solve 6 to 8 problems correctly on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME)." As

with most high school competitions, knowledge of calculus is not required; however, calculus may be necessary to

solve a select few of the more difficult problems on the Individual Rounds.

7/15/2019 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/harvardmit-mathematics-tournament-wikipedia-the-free-encyclopedia 3/4

7/3/13 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard–MIT_Mathematics_Tournament

Results

The results of HMMT February can be seen below:

Year Overall ChampionIndividual

Champion

Team Round A

ChampionGuts Round Champion

2013 Phillips Exeter Academy James Tao Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy

2012 Phillips Exeter Academy Xiaoyu He Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy

2011Saratoga High

School/SFBAXiaoyu He North Carolina

Saratoga High

School/SFBA

2010 Phillips Exeter Academy Ben Gunby TJHSST AAST

2009 TJHSST Ice Pasupat Lehigh Valley ARML Lehigh Valley ARML

2008 Phillips Exeter Academy Brian Hamrick  New York City Math

TeamQuagga

2007 The WOOTlings Arnav Tripathy The WOOTlings TJHSST

2006 Phillips Exeter Academy Nimish Ramanlal TJHSST AAST

2005 Phillips Exeter Academy Thomas Mildorf TJHSST Florida

2004 TJHSST Tiankai Liu TJHSST Phillips Exeter Academy

2003 TJHSST Tony Zhang TJHSST AAST

2002 Newton South High

SchoolRicky Liu

 Newton South High

SchoolLexington High School

2001 Lexington High School Ricky Liu Lexington High School Newton South High Schoo

2000 Newton South High

SchoolRicky Liu

 Newton South High

School Newton South High Scho

1999 Newton South High

Schooln/a

 Newton South High

Schooln/a

1998 Lexington High School n/a Lexington High School n/a

HMMT November

HMMT November has been held since 2008, alternately at MIT and Harvard, for teams of six students. Students

are required to come from the United States to participate, and no student may compete in both November and

February in a given school year. The tournament is similar in style to HMMT February, and is organized by the

same Harvard and MIT students. Instead of three topic tests, HMMT November has two Individual Rounds: a

General Test (ten questions from Algebra, Geometry, and Combinatorics) and a Theme Test (ten questions, many

of which are tied together by a common theme). Additionally, the Team Round is entirely short answer, instead of

 proof-based. HMMT November is considered to be an easier alternative to HMMT February. The results of 

HMMT November can be seen below:

7/15/2019 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/harvardmit-mathematics-tournament-wikipedia-the-free-encyclopedia 4/4

7/3/13 Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard–MIT_Mathematics_Tournament

Year Overall Champion Individual Champion Team Round Champion Guts Round Champion

2012 Western Mass ARML Dhroova Aiylam Phillips Exeter Academy Western Mass ARML

2011 Phillips Exeter Academy Forest Tong Lexington High School Brookline High School

2010 Phillips Exeter Academy Ravi Jagadeesan Phillips Exeter Academy Lexington High School

2009 ABRHS Xiaoyu He Phillips Exeter Academy ABRHS

2008 Western Mass ARML Sam Trabucco Western Mass ARML Westford Academy

Sponsors

HMMT is currently sponsored by the MIT Mathematics Department, the Harvard Mathematics Department, and

Jane Street Capital.

Related competitions

The Princeton University Mathematics Competition

External links

HMMT (http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/), official website

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harvard– 

MIT_Mathematics_Tournament&oldid=551296483"

Categories: Mathematics competitions Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard University

Recurring events established in 1998

This page was last modified on 20 April 2013 at 15:07.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.