ARML
The American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), is an annual high school mathematics team competition held simultaneously at three locations in the United States: the University of Iowa, Penn State, and San Jose State (the 2006 Western site will be in Las Vegas at UNLV).
Teams are comprised of 15 members, which usually represent a large geographic region (such as a state) or a large population center (such as a major city). Some math and science magnet schools, such as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, VA, and the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AAST), NJ, also field teams. The competition is held on the first Saturday after Memorial Day.
Contents
Competition Format
The competition consists of four formal events:
- A team round, where the entire team has 20 minutes to solve 10 problems.
- A power question, where the entire team has one hour to solve a multiple-part (usually ten) question requiring explanations and proofs.
- A relay, where the team is broken into five groups of three. Within each group, the first team member solves a problem and passes the solution to the next team member, who plugs that answer into their question, and so on. Extra points are given for solving the problem in half the allotted time.
- An individual round, where each team member answers four groups of two questions each, with ten minutes per pair.
At the end, the student(s) with the highest scores on the individual compete for first place. Each student tied for the highest score (typically eight correct, although this varies from year to year) is given a single question, and the quickest to get the correct answer wins. The tiebreaker results are shared between the three sites to determine the top overall scorer, based on time to get the correct answer.
In recent years, there has been a super relay, where two groups of seven team members (fourteen in all) both work to give a correct answer to the fifteenth team member. That last team member plugs two answers into his problem. For logistical reasons, the Super Relay has never counted towards the team score. It was instituted as a "filler" while scores are tabulated. Candies and other goodies are sometimes rewards for the super relay round.
The format of the ARML competition is based on the NYSML competition, but is generally considered more difficult than the NYSML competition.
History
The New York State Mathematics League held its first competition in 1973, a competition intended for New York state teams. A team from Massachusetts asked to participate in the 1974 NYSML competition, and it took first place. This led to the creation of the Atlantic Regions Mathematics League in 1976, which became the American Regions Mathematics League in 1984.
When the Atlantic Regions Mathematics League was founded, the competition was held at a single eastern site that changed from year to year:
- 1976: C. W. Post College
- 1977: Brown University
- 1978: Rutgers University
- 1979: University of Hartford
- 1980: Rutgers University
- 1981: University of Maryland College Park
- 1982: University of Maryland College Park
- 1983: Pennsylvania State University
After 1983, the coordinators decided to keep the competition at Penn State University. ARML expanded to two sites in the late 1980s and to three sites in the 1990s. A fourth site will be added for the 2007 competition, in the Southeast (somewhere within Florida).
Past Team Winners
- 2005: Lehigh Valley Fire
- 2004: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology A
- 2003: Thomas Jefferson A
- 2002: Thomas Jefferson A
- 2001: San Francisco Bay Area A
- 2000: Chicago A/San Francisco Bay Area A (tie)
- 1999: San Francisco Bay Area A
- 1998: Massachusetts A
- 1997: Minnesota Gold
- 1996: San Francisco Bay Area A
- 1995: New York City A
- 1994: New York City A
- 1993: Thomas Jefferson A
- 1992: Georgia A
- 1991: Ontario A
- 1990: Ontario A
- 1989: Chicago A
- 1988: Chicago A
- 1987: New York City A
- 1986: New York City A
- 1985: Montgomery A
- 1984: New York City A
- 1983: New York City A
- 1982: New York City A
- 1981: New York City A
- 1980: New York City A
- 1979: New York City A
- 1978: Fairfax-Montgomery
- 1977: Massachusetts A
- 1976: New York City A
Note: Results from before 1992 are taken from http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~rickert/ARML/armlwins.html. This site may not be accurate; it is wrong in at least one year of Division B standings.
Past Individual Winners
- 2005: Ryan Ko (Phillips Exeter A)
- 2004: Aaron Pixton (Upstate New York A)
- 2003: Anders Kaseorg (N. Carolina A)
- 2002: Ruozhou Jia (Chicago A)
- 2001: Gabriel Carroll (San Francisco Bay Area A)
- 2000: Tiankai Liu (San Francisco Bay Area A)
- 1999: Gabriel Carroll (San Francisco Bay Area A)
- 1998: Gabriel Carroll (San Francisco Bay Area A)
- 1997: Davesh Maulik (Nassau A)
- 1996: Nathan Curtis (Thomas Jefferson A)
- 1995: Daniel Stronger (New York City A)
- 1994: Noam Shazeer
- 1993: Jeremy Bem
