Harvard-MIT Math Tournament

The Harvard–MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT) is an annual high school math competition started in 1998. The location of the tournament, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, alternates between Harvard University (even years) and MIT (odd years). The contest is written and staffed entirely by Harvard and MIT students, and is considered to be one of the most prestigious high school math competitions in the world.

HMMT February is attended by teams of eight students each. Teams can represent a single school, or a regional math team as large as a state. In recent years, teams have represented over 20 states, as well as Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.

HMMT February consists of three rounds: the Individual Round, the Team Round, and the Guts Round. No calculator or computational aids of any kind are allowed during the contest.

The Individual Round consists of exams in Algebra, Combinatorics, and Geometry. Each of the three exams is 50 minutes in length and contains 10 questions. The exams are open-answer; that is, the answers given will be numbers such as 7 or 11/20.

For the Team Round, the eight-person teams compete together on a 60-minute-long test. The Team Round is a collaborative event with proof-style problems, sometimes arranged into groups of several problems on the same theme. Thorough justifications are required for full credit. The Team Round is worth a total of 400 points, and problems are weighted according to difficulty. The event is similar to an ARML Power Round, but the problems are much harder and less numerous. This round is targeted at teams comfortable with rigorous mathematical proofs.

The Guts Round is an 80-minute team event with 36 short-answer questions on an assortment of subjects, of varying difficulty and point values. Each team is seated in a predetermined spot, and the questions are divided into groups of four. At the starting signal, each team sends a runner to an assigned problem station to pick up copies of the first set of four problems for each team member. As soon as a team has answers for one problem set, the runner may bring the answers to the problem station and pick up the next set. It is not expected that students will finish all the problems. Grading is immediate and scores are posted in real time, resulting in an exciting atmosphere for the competitors. The Guts round is worth a total of approximately 400 points.

HMMT February also features events on the Friday evening prior to the tournament. Some of these events include a dinner and social for students and coaches, and Mini-Events such as math talks about famous problems and math-related games.

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