MMM

Mega Math Meet

This page is for organisers of the Mega Math Meet, and in particular for storing logistics information, template TeX files, possibly past exams, etc. As this is a public page, it should not be used for storing contestant data, non-public results information, nor as a repository for sharing the current year's draft problems as they are written.

TeX Instructions

The exam is divided into usually around 5 problems--3 to be done individually and 2 do be done by a team. Problems are often subdivided into separate questions, each worth a specified number of points. Individual problems are often worth, in total, around 10 points each, whereas team problems are each worth around 50 points in total.

Each problem should go in its own separate TeX file, which should contain no headers and should be formatted like the following example:

template_problem.tex:

\Pnum[Problem Name]

Explanation of the problem's mathematics and story.  

\pnum

Part 1 of the problem.  Include some introduction text here

\qnum[1] Part 1 question 1.  How many kilometres in a metre?
\answerbox[km]

\qnum[1] Part 1 question 2.  1+1
\answerbox[]

\qnum[2] Part 1 question 3
\answerbox[units]

\pnum

Part 2 introduction

\qnum[2] Part 2 question 1
\answerbox[mile(s)]

\qnum[4] Part 2 question 2
\answerbox[hour(s)]

As seen in this example, when you want a box at the end of a question for the students to write the answers into, use the \answerbox macro or the \answerboxn macro, depending on whether you want an extra newline after the answerbox. The answerbox macros take an argument which allows you to put some text at the right side of the answerbox, e.g. to specify the units expected for the answer.

The qnum macro also takes an argument, specifying how many points the particular question is worth. These files will be included in one master file that defines all these macros, the current edition of which looks like this

template_all.tex:

\documentclass[12pt]{amsart}
\usepackage{graphicx,amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts,mathrsfs,latexsym}
\pagestyle{empty}
\theoremstyle{definition}
\newtheorem{prob}{Problem}[section]
\newcounter{PROB}
\newcounter{PN}[PROB]
\newcounter{QN}[PROB]
\setcounter{QN}{0}
\setcounter{PN}{0}
\setcounter{PROB}{-1}
\newcommand{\Pnum}[1][]{\begin{center}\stepcounter{PROB}{\large\textbf{Problem \arabic{PROB}: #1}}\end{center}\par}
\newcommand{\pnum}[1][]{\stepcounter{PN}{\large \textbf{Part \arabic{PN}: #1}}\newline\par}
\newcommand{\qnumn}{\stepcounter{QN}\textbf{Question \arabic{PROB}.\arabic{QN}: }}
\newcommand{\qnum}[1][]{\stepcounter{QN}\par\textbf{Question \arabic{PROB}.\arabic{QN}: }(#1 points) }
\newcommand{\answerboxn}[1][]{\phantom{.}\hfill\framebox[5cm]{\begin{minipage}{1px}\hfill\vspace{.4in}\end{minipage}\hfill#1\ }\newline\newline}
\newcommand{\answerbox}[1][]{\\\phantom{.}\hfill\framebox[5cm]{\begin{minipage}{1px}\hfill\vspace{.4in}\end{minipage}\hfill#1\ }\newline\newline}

\begin{document}
\Pnum[Mental Math (no calculators allowed)]
\vspace{1cm}
Example:\hfill\answerboxn\\
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn
\qnumn \hfill \answerboxn

\newpage

\include{template_problem}

\end{document}

Logistics

Trophies

We order trophies from [Whatever the trophy company is], and tend to order [some approximation of our standard trophy order]

T-shirts

We order T-shirts from [Whatever the shirt company is], and tend to order [some approximation of our standard shirt order]

Time and Place

The meet is usually held on a Thursday in late May, and requires reserving in advance [whatever standard set of rooms we use]

Pizza

For the event, we order pizza for the contestants from [pizza place]. It is polite to apprise them of the order a day in advance.

Exams from Previous Years

A tarball with the all of 2012's problems, TeX and PDF, is at File:2012MMM.tar.gz.gif

It is uploaded as a .gif because of mediawiki's restrictions, so delete the .gif from the end of the filename after downloading to get the actual tarball. If you are on Windows and cannot open the file, download 7zip from [[1]]. If you are on some flavour of Unix, you can simply use the command:

tar -xzvf 2012MMM.tar.gz