Federal mathematics competition
The Federal Mathematics Competition ( BWM ) is a nationwide mathematics competition in Germany , which is primarily aimed at high school students . It has been held annually since 1970. The competition is sponsored by Education & Talent, the federal and state talent promotion center.
history
The competition was launched in 1970 by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft , which financed the competition together with the Federal Ministry for Education and Research and sponsors from the economy. The competition is organized by education and talent . The patronage contributes traditionally the Federal President of Germany. Since the reunification of Germany, the federal competition has taken place all over Germany - as has the Mathematics Olympiad , the mathematics competition of the former GDR.
Since 1970 (as of June 2017) over 70,000 students have participated in the first round. These included 13,510 female students (around 19% of the total). Around 12,800 students took part in the second round; in the third round there were a total of just over 2,600 participants. So far there have been over 400 national winners, some of which have received multiple awards. Well-known prize winners are the two German Fields medal winners Gerd Faltings and Peter Scholze as well as the President of the Free University of Berlin , Günter M. Ziegler .
procedure
The three-stage competition consists of two rounds of homework and a mathematical discussion in the third round.
First round
The first round starts in early December and is open to students of all grades attending a school in Germany. In terms of content, the competition is aimed at grades 9 to 13 of schools that lead to a general higher education entrance qualification . Group work is also permitted: a maximum of three participants can form a group and submit a work together. If a group work is awarded a prize, each member of this group is entitled to participate in the second round. Four tasks from different mathematical sub-areas have to be solved by the deadline for submission in early March.
The corrections in the first round usually last until the end of May. Already for a completely solved task you receive a recognition, from three solved tasks there is a certificate.
Second round
The winners of the first round are entitled to participate in the second round. Those who have successfully participated in a group also qualify, but must work on the tasks of the second round alone. Again there are four tasks to be solved, these are much more difficult than those of the first round, and the processing time up to the deadline for entries on September 1st is about a month shorter than for the first round.
The corrections in the second round usually last until the beginning of November. As in the first round, there are first, second and third prizes for participants who have solved at least three tasks. The award winners will receive their certificates at regional award ceremonies in early December. Cash prizes are also awarded. The award winners can also take part in the pre-selection exams for the German team at the International Mathematical Olympiad . Individual countries also hold mathematical seminars for the award winners.
Third round
Anyone who has achieved a first prize in the second round will be invited to the third round, unless they have already been the national winner in an earlier competition. This takes place at the beginning of February as a colloquium . Here the participants have an almost one-hour technical discussion with a mathematician from university and school. The national winners are selected on the basis of these discussions. Former national winners who have again achieved a first prize in the second round will automatically become national winners again without having to go through the third round again. There are no restrictions on the number of national winners, on average there are between ten and 20 award winners.
The national winner award ceremony usually takes place in April. In addition to a certificate, there are cash and material prizes, and multiple national winners are also honored with special prizes. In addition, the national winners are accepted into the German National Academic Foundation , are allowed to do a research stay at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn and are invited to events such as the Day of Talents .
tasks
The tasks come from different areas of mathematics. Among the four tasks there is always one from geometry , mostly plane geometry, but in the second round also occasionally in three-dimensional space. Other types of tasks that are very often represented are equations and inequalities , combinatorial games and number theory . All tasks since 1999 can be found in the task archive of the competition.
In addition to a correct solution, the correction - especially in the second round - attaches great importance to a clean representation.
Special competition
For the Year of Mathematics 2008, a special competition was held, in which it was not about solving problems, but in which students were asked to invent problems themselves.
literature
- Horst Sewerin: Mathematical student competitions. Descriptions, analyzes, tasks, training methods, with results. Survey on the federal mathematics competition . Manz, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7863-0347-9 .
- Hanns-Heinrich Langmann, Erhard Quaisser, Eckehard Specht: National Mathematics Competition: The most beautiful tasks. Springer Spectrum 2016, ISBN 978-3-662-49539-1 .
Web links
- Official website of the federal mathematics competition
- English BWM collection of tasks with solutions for discussion as a forum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Participation statistics since 2017 (PDF; 69 kB)
- ↑ Wolfgang Blum: Genius in Bonn. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ^ Education & Talent - Congratulations, Peter Scholze! Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Kathrin Westhölter: The discrete charm of geometry. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Nationwide mathematics competitions - federal mathematics competition. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Nationwide mathematics competitions - tasks and solutions. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.bundeswettbewerb-mathematik.de/wettbewerb/sonderwettb2008.htm ( Memento from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )