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Below is content from Page 1 of the FREE Guide for New Coaches – a six-page guide designed to help educators get acquainted with the Competition Series and understand their role as a coach in the program.
The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series in a Nutshell
The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person math contests against and alongside their peers. Created in 1983, it is the longest-running MATHCOUNTS program and is open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.
HOW DOES IT WORK? The Competition Series has 4 levels of competition—school, chapter, state and national. Here’s what a typical program year looks like:
Schools register in the fall and work with students during the year. Coaches administer the School Competition, usually in January. Any number of students from your school can participate in your team meetings and compete in the School Competition. MATHCOUNTS provides the School Competition to coaches in November. Many coaches use this to determine which student(s) will advance to the Chapter Competition.
Between 1 and 14 students from each school advance to the local Chapter Competition, which takes place in February. Each school can send a team of 4 students plus up to 10 individual competitors. All chapter competitors—whether they are team members or individuals—participate in the individual rounds of the competition; then just the 4 team members participate in the team round. Schools also can opt to send just a few individual competitors, rather than forming a full team. Over 500 Chapter Competitions take place across the country.
Top students from each Chapter Competition advance to their State Competition, which takes place in March. Your school’s registration fees cover your students as far as they get in the Competition Series. If your students make it to one of the 56 State Competitions, no additional fees are required.
Top 4 individual competitors from each State Competition receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Competition, which takes place in May. These 224 students combine to form 4-person state teams, while also competing individually for the title of National Champion. (Continued in the Guide for New Coaches)
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