Welcome to the website of the Mathematics A-lympiad: the real world mathematics team competition with open ended assignments.
The 'problem solving' or 'modelling' component is contained in the mathematics
curriculum in many foreign countries. Working on these skill is often put on
the shelf, because textbooks often don't provide good examples of appropriate
tasks and teachers do not know how they are supposed to deal with this. If no
structural support is provided, this component is likely to disappear from the
curriculum: it will not be practised and will certainly not be assessed.
The Mathematics A-lympiad fills this 'gap' perfectly by providing appropriate
tasks to practice these skills. This is both the case in the Netherlands as
well as in the other participating countries. The contents of the mathematics
curricula do not need to be exactly the same. In the Mathematics A-lympiad these
other 'higher order' skills are being used.
The Mathematics A-lympiad has two rounds: the preliminary round with about
1000 teams of students competing a day long at their own schools (in their own
countries), and an international final in which about 16 teams compete during
a whole weekend, in a conference centre in a Dutch national park.
In the Netherlands, the best 9 Dutch teams are invited to the final round.
Denmark
Originally, the Mathematics A-lympiad is a Dutch competition. However, since
1995, schools in Denmark have been participating as well. Therefore since 1995 "the Mathematics A-lympiad" became "the International Mathematics A-lympiad".
Teams of students of schools in Denmark work on the same problem, on the same
day (the third Friday of November).
The assignment is developed by the A-lympiad Committee at the Freudenthal Institute,
and is translated into Danish for the Danish students.
From Denmark, the best 3 teams are sent to the final round. The 'Danish Committee'
decides which two teams are the best.
Germany
Germany participates since 2002.
Germany organizes it's own A-lympiad final round and then sends the teams that became first and second.
Dutch Antilles
Since 2000, the Sint Maarten and Aruba are participating as
well. Dutch and English are the languages spoken there, so the assignments are
also translated into English... From the Dutch islands in the Caribbean, the best team from each island is invited.
Iran
Iran has participated since 2009, they send two teams: a girls team and a boys team. The teams come from schools in Isfahan.
Other countries
Of course, every school from every country is invited to join the competition.
The level of the students must be comparable; in the Netherlands, students are
in the last two grades of pre-university school (grades 11/12); their age is
17/18 years old.
If you are interested in joining the competition, or, to begin with: in the assignments, please go to: HOW TO JOIN?
NEWS:
In the year 2013/2014 the 25th A-lympiad took place!
The preliminary round for 2014/2015 will be held on the 14th of November.