Hong Kong Mathematics Olympiad (HKMO, Chinese: 香港數學競賽) is a Mathematics Competition held in Hong Kong every year, jointly organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Education Bureau. At present, more than 250 secondary schools send teams of 4-6 students of or below Form 5 to enter the competition. It is made up of a Heat Event and a Final Event, which both forbide the usage of calculators and calculation assisting equipments (e.g. printed mathematical table). Though it bears the term Mathematics Olympiad, it has no relationship with the International Mathematical Olympiad.
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History
The predecessor of HKMO is the Inter-school Mathematics Olympiad initiated by the Mathematics Society of Northcote College of Education in 1974, which had attracted 20 secondary schools to participate. Since 1983, the competition is jointly conducted by the Mathematics Department of Northcote College of Education and the Mathematics Section of the Advisory Inspectorate Division of the Education Department. Also in 1983, the competition is formally renamed as Hong Kong Mathematics Olympiad.
Format and Scoring in the Heat Event
The Heat Event is usually held in four venues, for contestants from schools on Hong Kong Island, and in Kowloon, New Territories East and New Territories West respectively. It comprises an individual event and a group event. Each team sends 4 contestants among 4-6 team members for each event.
In the Heat Individual Event, each contestant have to solve 10 problems independently in 40 minutes. Only answers are required, and 1 mark is given for each correct answer. Therefore, each school may earn 40 marks at maximum in this event.
In the Heat Group Event, the four contestants from each team have to solve 10 problems together in 20 minutes. Each team shall hand in one answer sheet only. Similar to the Heat Individual Event, only answers are required, and 1 mark is given for each correct answer. Each school may earn 10 marks at maximum in this event.
In other words, a contesting school may earn 50 marks at most in the Heat Event. The top 40 may enter the Final Event.
Format and Scoring in the Final Event
The Final Event is usually held at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in Tai Po. It comprises 4 individual events and 4 group events. Before the real events begin, there is a mock event which carries no marks. Each team may send any 4 students for the individual events, and any 4 students for the group events. For every events, only answers are required.
There are 4 questions in each Final Individual Event. The questions have to be solved by alternate contestants independently, and no discussions are allowed. For each event, the questions are interrelated, i.e. to solve the second question, the answer of the first question is needed, and to solve the third, the answer from the second is needed, etc..
There are also 4 questions in each Final Group Event, which may be interrelated or not. The four contestants shall complete each event together, and discussion is allowed.
For each event, 5 minutes is given. There are timekeepers to report the time taken used for each team in each event. The detailed scoring method is:
(A) Score for Accuracy
(B) Multiplying Factor for Speed
(C) Bonus Score
If all answers from a team in an event are correct, 20 marks are given as a bonus.
The score for an event is equal to (A)×(B)+(C). The honour of Champion, 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up are given according to the total score earned in eight events.