For a century and a half, the scene of mathematics competitions underwent a remarkable transformation from isolated and geographically scattered events to a full-scale and a full-featured vibrant global ecosystem comprising an impressive variety of competitions, school students, university students, teachers, mentors, scientists, schools,…

In this paper, we consider mathematical competitions for pre-university students, such as the "International Mathematical Olympiad" (IMO) and many national and regional Olympiads following a similar model. The problems proposed in these contests must be solvable by 'elementary' methods (i.e., without using calculus) and belong…

The purpose of these notes is to generalize and extend a challenging geometry problem from a mathematics competition. The notes also contain solution sketches pertaining to the problems discussed.

Working within the context of a contest to find the most beautiful tourist attraction in the world, Year 5 students investigate the most symmetric building from a short-list of three iconic buildings. This involves investigating both line and rotational symmetry in order to make an informed decision about the symmetrical nature of each building.

This article describes the following phenomenon: Gifted high school students trained in solving Olympiad-style mathematics problems experienced conflict between their conceptions of "effectiveness" and "elegance" (the EEC). This phenomenon was observed while analyzing clinical task-based interviews that were conducted with three members of the…