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QSI MS Mathematics Bowl

QSI Sarajevo is hosting a mathematics competition for students currently in the 11-13-year-old classes, including students enrolled in classes above their class level.

The QSI Math Bowl is loosely based on the popular MathCounts competition. The competition will take place over two days, with the first day being entirely an asynchronous and local competition. On the second day, the 10 highest achieving students of the previous rounds will advance to the Top 10 Round, competing in a synchronous QSI-level competition.  

Competition Structure

Day 1 (February 13)

Asynchronous, local - for all competiting students and participating schools

  • Sprint Round: focuses on speed and accuracy. Students have 40 minutes to complete 30 math problems without a calculator.  All students complete this task. 

  • Target Round: focuses on problem-solving and mathematical reasoning. Students receive 4 pairs of problems and have 6 minutes to complete each pair, assuming the use of a calculator.  All students complete this task.

  • Team Round: focuses on problem-solving and collaboration. Students have 20 minutes to complete 10 math problems, assuming the use of a calculator. Only the 4 students on a school's official team can take this round officially. Schools with enough students can have an A-team and a B-team etc. 

Day 2 (February 15) 

Synchronous, conducted online - the 10 highest-scoring students from the previous rounds will compete in this event.

  • Countdown Round: focuses on speed and accuracy. Students have a maximum of 60 seconds per problem without a calculator. The top 10 competitors will compete in 3 rounds for the semi-finals and a final round for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Scoring

An individual's score is their total number of correct Sprint Round answers plus 2 times their total number of correct Target Round answers. This total is out of a maximum of  30+2(8) = 46. The top 10 students from all participating schools move on to the Day 2 Countdown Round.  

The score of a team is equal to the average of the total of its participants' individual scores plus twice the number of questions answered accurately on the team round. With the individual scores of a maximum of 46 each and team-round scores a maximum of 20, 66 is a perfect team score. 

Recognition

Certificates will be awarded for the top 3 teams, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place student award and an achievement award for making the top 10. 

Subject Areas Covered

Here are some of the broad subject areas that may appear in the competition. These roughly map to the 11-13YOC Mathematics and Algebra I QSI curricula common to all participating schools.

The Math Bowl may cover topics including positive rational numbers, integers, ratios, rates, and proportional relationships, as well as percent problems. Algebraic concepts include numeric and algebraic expressions, solving equations and inequalities, linear equations and functions, systems of equations, exponents and exponential functions, polynomials, quadratic functions, and real numbers. Geometry topics include transformations, similarity and angles, the Pythagorean Theorem, surface area and volume, and basic applications of coordinate geometry. Data-related topics involve displaying, describing, and summarizing data, as well as data investigation and sampling techniques. 

All of these areas are touched upon through creative problem-solving both at an individual and team-level.