A Mathlete team consists of five members: At least one freshman or sophomore and at most two seniors. The other two are usually juniors.
If a team has fewer than 5 members, “ghosts” are scheduled into the empty slots and scored as if they received no points. Three team members may not take all five tests and have them count as the team score.
Scoring: The first question of each section scores 3 points for a correct answer and the second question scores 5 points for a correct answer. Thus, each team member may acquire 8 points for his/her team in each section. The group problem scores 10 points for a correct answer. The five member team could accumulate a maximum of 106 points. No partial credit is given for the work; only the answer written on the answer line is scored.
Each school may enter two teams in a competition; the one reaching the highest total in the competition represents the school. Additional students from a school who wish to become acquainted with the competition may also write in any section for practice, but their papers are not corrected and their scores are not counted in the school score. Some schools call these alternates the C team.
Papers are scored and scores posted as the competition proceeds so that final results are available within minutes of the end of the meet. At the end of each meet season, points are awarded the teams according to the rank at each meet. The team with the lowest cumulative score at the end of the season keeps the trophy for the year. Trophies are usually awarded for the three lowest scoring teams at each meet.
The competition is earnest and carefully officiated, but friendly outside the competition area with the host school usually serving light refreshments.
