Mathematical Kangaroo

Mathematical Kangaroo (also International Mathematical Kangaroo and Kangourou sans frontières, the original French name) is an international mathematical competition with more than 40 countries that take an active part in it. There are twelve levels of participation: from grade 1 to grade 12. The competition is held annually on the third Thursday of March. According to the organizers, the key competence tested by the Kangaroo is logical combination, not just pure knowledge of formulas. Because of the rising popularity of the Mathematical Kangaroo in many participating countries, it is currently the most participated scholar math competition: over 5,000,000 students from 47 countries took part in 2009.

History

The competition was established in 1991 by André Deledicq, a professor of mathematics at the University of Paris 7, and Jean-Pierre Boudine,[1] professor of mathematics at Marseille. The idea comes from the great Australian Mathematics Competition, initiated in 1978 by Peter O'Halloran,[2] and is based on multiple-choice questions (MCQs) - an original formula, unused in France at that time, at least for mathematics. For this competition, Jean-Pierre Boudine and André Deledicq have been awarded the 1994 d'Alembert prize of the Mathematical Society of France.

Format

The competition is executed as a 75 minutes multiple choice test, consisting of 30 questions (up to 4th grade, only 24 questions) equally divided among the categories of 3-point-, 4-point- and 5-point-questions. 5 solutions are given, exactly one of them being correct. One is given the respective points for choosing the correct answer, 0 points for not answering and a quarter of the respective points are taken off for choosing a wrong answer. Each participant is given 30 base points at the begin (up to 4th grade, 24) so that the minimum number of points at the end is 0. The maximum number is 150 (up to 4th grade, 120) points.

Prizes

Evaluation and collecting of results as well as the prizes are regulated and organized nationally. Special prizes are given for the “longest kangaroo jump” (the highest number of consecutive correct answers) for each school.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jean-Pierre Boudine biography at French Wikipedia
  2. ↑ Obituary: Peter Joseph O'Halloran (1931-1994) at AMT website

External links