Regulations of the Nordic Mathematical Contest

1.

The Nordic Mathematical Contest (NMC) is a competition organised annually for secondary school students in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The competition is arranged jointly by the organisations of the participating countries responsible for the selection and training of the national teams for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). These organisations will be called national organisations. The primary aims of the contest are to

• provide the participants with an experience with a mathematical contest at an international level;
• provide the national organisations with information relevant for the selection of the IMO team of the country.

2.

The representatives of the national organisations meet annually at the IMO to set the date of the next NMC and to discuss matters related to the contest.

3.

Each participating country can enter a maximum of 20 competitors. The competitors should be eligible to participate in the IMO of the year of the competition as members of the team of their country. Also other secondary school students from the participating countries are allowed to compete. The participants are chosen by the national organisations. Before the competition each country sends a list of the names of their contestants to the host.

4.

The names and scores of the approximately best 25 to 30 participants will be posted at the NMC homepage. All names and scores are communicated to every national organisation and every participant.

4.

Each year, one of the national organisations, called the host, is responsible for the general arrangements of the contest. The order is as follows (year mod 5): 0: Finland, 1: Denmark, 2: Sweden, 3: Norway, 4: Iceland. The national arrangements in each country are taken care of by the national organisations.

5.

The contest takes place in March or April on a date agreed upon by the participating organisations. The preferred time of the contest is suggested by the host. The competition problems should be kept confidential until the day after the contest. In the contest, the participants solve four problems within four hours. The only tools allowed are paper and writing and drawing instruments. The contestants can write in their own language. The problems are marked on a scale from 0 to 7. Only integers are used.

6.

The mathematical content covered by the problems is that of the IMO; their intended level of difficulty is slightly below that of the IMO.

7.

The host prepares the problem paper in English on the basis of problem proposals submitted by the national organisations including the host. The national organisations prepare translations of the problems into the languages of the participants. The host may review the translations before the contest. The final problem papers should be ready to be mailed to the sites where the exam is held well in advance of the date of the competition.

8.

The national organisations are responsible for the necessary arrangements in their country. The students write the exam in their own school or at another suitable site. The national organisations collect the scripts, mark them preliminarily according to a marking scheme provided by the host, and send them with sufficient comments and necessary translations to the host. The host performs the final marking of all the scripts and informs the national organisations of the results. The decisions of the host are final. The national organisations are free to publish the results after receiving them from the host.

9.

The host informs the national organisations on deadlines for sending in problem suggestions and scripts. The aim is to have the final results well before the end of the school year. The host issues a diploma of participation to every participant and decides on the number of participants whose diploma indicates the rank of the contestant. No other prizes are given. The national organisations are responsible for the distribution of the diplomas to the participants or their schools.

10.

The host can decide on minor deviations from these rules if necessary.