Gunn Math Competition (GMC)
The Gunn Math Competition (GMC) is an annual middle and high school mathematics competition sponsored and run by the Gunn High School Math Club in Palo Alto, California. GMC consists of two divisions: A division, which usually consists of early high schoolers and advanced middle schoolers who have qualified for AIME, and B Division, which is targetted towards middle schoolers and advanced high schoolers who want to pursue competition math.
In high school, there are overwhelmingly many opportunities from all sorts of math leagues and contests and competitions, whereas there are far fewer in middle school (small regional leagues and MathCounts). The transition from middle to high school math can be difficult. Inspired by other tournaments that provide challenging problems to high school students, it is Gunn High School's goal to offer middle school students an equally fun competition to help bridge the gap to high school mathematics and encourage them to continue their pursuit of mathematics in all of its forms.
Format
In GMC, the rounds consist of a Individual round, a Team round, and a Guts Round respectively.
Individual Round
The Individual Round is a solo, 60 minute test covering a wide range of subjects, such as Algebra, Geometry, Probability, and Number Theory. It consists of 10 problems, and is the first round in the tournament.
Team Round
The Team Round consists of a total of 10 problems for the A Division and 15 problems for the B Division, for 60 minutes. The problems are meant to be solved as a group by all four members of a team, and are ordered in approximately increasing difficulty.
Guts Round
The Guts Round is a 75 minute event where teams work together to solve 8 sets of 3 problems each. At the starting signal, each team sends a runner to an assigned problem station to pick up copies of the first set of 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. However, once a team submits a problem set, they may not go back to it. Grading is immediate and scores are posted in real time.
Activities
There are creative activities available for students to do during grading. These include but are not limited to SET, Estimathon, Grid Puzzles, and Cubing. There are also occasionally guest speakers, such as Po-Shen Loh in 2025.
