Intermediate Math League of Eastern Massachusetts

The Intermediate Math League of Eastern Massachusetts (or IMLEM) is a math league for middle schools across Eastern Massachusetts. A brief history of IMLEM is given in its By-Lawscite web | url=http://www.imlem.org/mathleague/By-Laws-2003-09.htm | title=IMLEM By-Laws, March 2003] :

chools

Each of the 64 teams, representing 58 schools, (numbers as of 2007-08) are assigned a geographic cluster and a scoring division. A school's scoring division is recommended by the league president based on an average of the school's scores for each of the previous three years. New schools are placed by the league president after a few meets.

Each team consists of at most ten students, of which no more than seven can be in 8th grade. No student above 8th grade can compete, and no student can compete for more than three years. There is no handicap for sending a team of less than ten students.

Schools may send more than one team, however no student can compete on more than one team in a year. Also, a school may send alternates to gain the experience of a meet.

Meets

IMLEM has five meets every year, one in October, November, January, February, and March. The first three meets are non-calculator, and the last two allow calculators for every round so long as the calculators are neither programmable nor graphing calculators.

Meets are held at distinct locations for each of the ten geographic clusters. Schools within the clusters generally hold at most one of the meets. Each of the meets are generally held on the same day by all clusters; however for scheduling conflicts, schools may host meets on other days.

There are five individual categories, and they are: Mystery, Geometry, Number Theory, Arithmetic, and Algebra. Each individual round contains three questions, varying in content but focusing on topics published by the test writer. Questions in individual rounds are worth 2 points each. (Before this was the case, questions would be worth the question number, i.e., one point for question one, two points for question two and three points for question three.) Students are given 10 minutes to complete the round, along with a 1 minute warning.

The sixth category is a 15 minute, six question team round. The entire team collaborates to solve each of the questions. The first five questions are usually based on topics from the five individual rounds, and the sixth question involves the answers to the first five questions. Each question is worth 6 points, and a team may get a maximum of 36 team round points.

Students take three individual categories, and no more than six students on a team may take a single category. In a round, the maximum score for an individual is 6, and the maximum score for a team is 36. It follows that the maximum individual score is 18, and the maximum team score is 216.

18s are not uncommon, and each meet sees many individuals who get 18s. Coming into the 2004-05 school year, a score above 200 had been achieved only five times: twice by Diamond Middle School, twice by Clarke Middle School, and the long-standing record of 205 set by Marblehead in 1983. The first meet of 2004-05 saw two teams score 200: Clarke scored 200, and Diamond shattered the record by scoring 212. Diamond scored perfect 36s in each of the rounds except for round 3 (number theory), in which 2 students each got a question wrong.

The 2007-08 season saw Clarke Middle School shatter many records, recent and not alike. Firstly, Clarke scored 1006 for the year, which is an "average" of 201.2 per meet. [cite web | url=http://sch.ci.lexington.ma.us/~jfrost/mathteam | title=Jonas Clarke Math Team] This broke the previous record set by Diamond back in the 2004-05 year. Secondly, they outscored second place Diamond by 122 points, also breaking a Diamond record, this one set in 2005-06.

Each of the meets follows the following basic format. Each of the teams arrive usually by 3:15, and after snacks, the five individual rounds are held in succession. After that, a fifteen-minute team round is conducted. For all rounds, alternates and regulars are split. Finally, awards are distributed and teams should depart around 5:30.

Topics

Divisions

† Year indicated is that of the "end" of that school year (i.e., 2007 represents the 2006-07 school year).

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.imlem.org/ IMLEM Math League]
* [http://www.imlem.org/mathleague/By-Laws-2003-09.htm IMLEM By-Laws, March 2003]