F A Q
Who can take part in the Mathematics Without Borders Tournament?
Every student from grades 1 to 12, providing their school organises the tournament. Everyone who wants to participate must get familiar with the tournament regulations and the syllabus which determines the mathematical content of the test papers. The content of our papers is not always in accordance with the content taught in specific grades due to the variation between the syllabus in different countries. The students’ parents must submit a privacy policy declaration, which allows us to process the students’ personal information, as well as to publish the students’ names and awards.
What action should be taken by the student who wants to participate in the tournament?
The students / parents must turn to their school board in order for their participation to be organised. The school must then determine whether they are able to organise the tournament.
All questions to do with the tournament, including regarding organisation, conduction, test questions, awards, etc., must be addressed to the school board and / or school coordinators. The organisers of the tournament are unable to read and respond to emails and letters sent by parents or participants.
In some countries (e.g. Afghanistan, Australia, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Malta, Nigeria, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam) we have local coordinators, authorised by MWB, who organise the tournament for all local schools who are interested.
How will the school organise the participation of their students?
Any school that has more than 10 students willing to participate in the tournament can send us a filled-out application form. Before applying, the school must consider their ability to conduct the tournament in accordance with the regulations, from the remote round they are joining to the tournament final. The school organisers must agree to the following promise: „We promise to organise and conduct a fair competition by strictly following the tournament regulations. We promise to ensure a calm atmosphere that enables the solitary work of all participants. We also promise to be precise and unbiased when marking our students’ test papers.“
The communication between the school partners and organisers must happen by email, while making sure to always use the same email address.
How are the remote rounds of the tournament conducted?
The tournament consists of 3 remote rounds (Autumn, Winter, and Spring round), which are conducted in the partner schools. You can join during any of those rounds. Each contestant can participate in each remote round regardless of their results in the previous remote round. The ranking for each round is done separately.
The participants from each grade must solve 20 open-ended problems for each of the remote rounds. The problems are based on the themes from the syllabus which is a vital part of the tournament regulations. The students have 60 minutes to complete the paper.
How does each remote round work?
The participants will conduct each round in their own school. During the contest, the student will receive the test papers and an answer sheet. The answers must be written down in the answer sheet, not on the test papers. Students are free to write on the test papers, however, the official document that is used to mark the student’s answers is the answer sheet. The diagrams in the test are simply an illustration. They have not been drawn to size and are not intended for measuring lengths and angles. After finishing, the participants must submit their answer sheet and test papers to the invigilator. The test papers may be requested by the school organiser after the results from the round have been published.
How are the results from each round marked?
The result of each participant is the sum of the points they accumulated from solving each of the problems in the round. Each correct answer gets 2 points, a partially correct answer gets 1 point (this can happen if there is 1 answer, and the participant has provided more than one, or if there are more answers and the participant has provided less) and a wrong or missing answer gets 0 points. Each participant will get 0 to 40 points in total. The invigilator will also record the time the student spent solving the problems. The time will be rounded up and it could be 0 to 60 minutes.
How is the ranking in the remote rounds determined?
The ranking is done separately for each round.
The participants from each grade, from all schools, are arranged according to their points from the greatest to the smallest sum.
The top 5% of participants from each grade who got the highest sum of points get a certificate and a gold medal. The next 10% get a certificate and a silver medal, and the next 15% get a certificate and bronze medal.
When two or more students have the same number of points, the time they took to complete the test is also taken into consideration. The student who took less time to complete the test gets ahead in the ranking.
All participants who did not earn a medal will get a certificate of participation. The awards will be posted to each partner school. The partner school will then organise the postage of the awards to the contestants.
Who can take part in the final?
For each participating country, the quota for participation in the final is calculated based on 20% of the average number of contestants in the autumn and winter rounds. The quotas are then announced on the tournament’s website after the winter round.
All contestants who won at least one medal in the remote rounds will gain access to the final.
How is the team competition organised and conducted?
The final consists of a team competition, as well as an individual competition. It is conducted for each grade and takes 40 minutes to complete. Each team is made up of 3 students. They must solve 5 problems together. The answer to each problem is represented by a symbol which is then used to solve the following problem. The team must fill out one answer sheet together. Each correct answer gets 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point, respectively. The result is the sum of the points of the team, which is a number from 0 to 15.
The ranking is based on the sum of the points earned. The participants from the team(s) with the greatest number of points get a gold medal, the next team(s) according to the sum of points earned gets a silver medal, and the team(s) with the third greatest sum get a bronze medal.
If two or more teams have the same number of points, the time they took to solve the problems is taken into consideration. The team that finished quicker will be ahead in the ranking.
The teams are formed by the partner schools where the remote rounds were held. In case a country participating in the final cannot form a team of 3 contestants per grade, the organisers may form international teams.
What are the awards for students and teachers in the final?
Medals: The students / teams of each grade who took part in the final are ranked according to the number of points earned – from the greatest to the smallest sum. The top 5% of the total number of students / teams of each grade in the ranking get a gold medal, the next 15% – get a silver medal, and the next 20% get a bronze medal.
Cups: The ranking for the Mathematics Without Borders Cups is determined based on the sum of the 2 best results from the 3 preliminary rounds and the tripled result from the final. Up to 3 representatives of each country who earned medals in the final will get access to the ranking. In case two or more contestants have the same number of points, the contestant who got a better result in the final will be ahead in the ranking. In case the number of points is still the same, all participants with this result will get the award.
„Math Star of the Tournament”: a participant from each country who got the most points from the ranking for the Tournament Cups.
„Tournament Legend”: the participants who earned three Cups in three previous editions of the tournament, who are participating in the following final.
The Mayor of Nessebar’s Award: Based on the jury’s suggestion, the Mayor of Nessebar, who is also the patron of the tournament, will award the student who was most successful in the final, and will also give a partnership award to a representative of a certain school / country.
Teacher awards: A plaque will be awarded to the teachers who had the greatest contribution to the popularising of the tournament.
How will the awards be received by the participants?
The awards from the remote rounds (Autumn, Winter, and Spring) will be distributed by the partner schools. They will be posted within a month from the end of each round. The awards from the final are received in one of two ways: during the Award Ceremony or afterwards by an authorised person.
The awards from the final (medals and cups) are NOT posted by post or courier.
The certificates for medals and cups are sent by post to the partner schools.
How is participation funded?
Participation in the preliminary rounds and final must be funded by the participants, the school, or donors.
What do we do with your personal data?
The participants must write down their names using the Latin alphabet. The processing of the names happens based on the information submitted by the school, written using the Latin alphabet: names, school, place of residence, and country. In the case of a name mismatch, the school organiser must be notified so that they may correct the mistake. The students’ parents must submit a declaration by which they give their permission for their child’s personal data to be processed and for the names and awards of their child to be published. The school coordinators must store the declaration and must not provide the personal data of any student whose parents have not signed a declaration.
When, how, and by whom are changes in the regulations made?
The organisers reserve their right to make changes to the regulations, of which they must notify the partner schools within 2 weeks. In the case of suspected breaking of the promise of a fair competition by the partner school, the organisers will terminate the school’s participation until the end of the final of the current tournament edition.
What is the promise of a fair competition?
The promise of a fair competition was formally accepted during the final meeting at the “Mathematics Without Borders – Motives, Realisation, Ambition” International Forum, held on 27-30 August 2014 in Sunny Beach.
Solitary and honest work is the main expectation that the organisers have of the tournament participants. This is why each participant must make the following promise:
“As a participant in the Mathematics without Borders Tournament, I promise
to abide by all rules of the tournament;
to keep the spirit of fairness by working independently;
to do my best and to strive to improve my performance;
to strive to obtain new knowledge and skills before, during and after each competition.
I will compete to help promote the establishment of the Olympic spirit in the mathematics competitions, by protecting:
my honor;
the honor of the school I represent;
the honor of the country I represent. “