There are two seasons to choose from: Season 1 (November through February) or Season 2 (January through April). You may certainly purchase your membership way in advance of the competition so that you are practicing before the tests take place. You may participate in either season, or both seasons. You must purchase 2 season membershlips to participate in both seasons. Parents may purchase a membership for their child to participate from home if the school is not participating.
Click here to request a sample test. An email will be sent to you to select the grade levels you need.
Yes, Coaches may have teams in both seasons. However, if you have the same students in both, you will need to create different usernames for the students for each season. You must purchase team membershlips for both seasons in order to do both.
Season 1 deadline to register is November 15th. Season 2 registration must be by January 15th
There are four tests each season-one test each month.You may choose from Season 1- (November through February) or Season 2- (January through April). The tests appear on the first Monday of each month and you have the entire season to take them. We do not extend the deadline for the competition though. Season 1 ends on Feb 28 and Season 2 ends on April 30. Our computer will run the awards reports so please DO NOT contact us for an extension to enter your test scores.
Tests are posted the first Monday of each month and need to be taken by the last Friday in order to make the Wall of Fame. We suggest that you have your students take the test within the 2 week window from the initial posting in order not to miss out due to weather or other circumstances. Season 1 competitors take tests November through February and Season 2 teams take tests January through April.
Coaches have access to PowerPoint lessons and last year's tests to be used in developing problem-solving skills. The Coach Practice Files appear automatically in the dashboard AFTER the Coach and team level are entered in the computer. We also have two volumes of Contest Problem Books available for each level with our previous tests in them along with additional Tournament Tests books from our Onsite Competitions. Problem-solving books from Edward Zaccaro and others are also available in our store. We recommend that you practice 45 minutes a week.
There are 6 questions on each test and each test must be completed in 30 minutes. Each question is worth 1 point. The tests are word problems with two or three steps and get progressively harder. The test is fill in the blank. A score of 3 out of 6 is above average, but students usually get better on the tests if weekly practice is provided during the competition. Students should enter only numerical answers unless the question requires special characters or words. You may request a sample test on the Online Competition page under the Tournaments menu or by going to the Contact Us page.
Each team may have up to 30 members at one competition level. If you have students from two different levels, you will need to purchase separate teams. The levels are Rookie (grades 3-4), Intermediate (5-6), and Advanced (7-8).
Yes. Students may be registered in a higher level than their grade level, but only one level above their grade level. 3/4th grade can do Intermediate and 5/6 can do Advanced. We also allow teachers to place a student in the computer in two separate levels on separate teams, but the student must have a different user name for each team. Third graders cannot be on an Advanced Team because that is 2 levels above their competition level.
Yes. Homeschool organizations and after school clubs are welcome to join the competition. Any student may participate individually for a $25 fee.
Students log in just like coaches by clicking on the login button on the top right of the screen. Coaches assign students a username and password in the Active Teams section on the Coach dashboard. The test will appear in the students dashboard in the center of the screen. If a student cannot log in, the coach may need to update the password for the student in Active Teams on the Coach dashboard.
Yes, Students in grades 3-8 can enter our competitions individually if there are not enough students to form a team. If schools do not participate, then parents may purchase a membership for their child.
You must purchase a membership for the test level you want to participate in. If you purchase an intermediate team, then your 4th graders will receive the intermediate test instead of a rookie test. If you want the fourth grade student to receive the rookie test, you must purchase a separate team level. Your team score will be calculated by the highest grade level on the team. In other words, if you have a fourth grader on a team with a sixth grader, the team is considered to be a 6th grade team and all students will receive the Intermediate test. However, your 4th grader's individual score will only be compared to other 4th grade scores when awards are calculated for individual awards.
First you must create an account with a user id and password. Once you have created a user id, you can go to the store and select the membership you want to purchase (team/individual student). You complete your purchase and go to your shopping cart and select invoice, purchase order, credit card, or PayPal. Individual student memberships and international team memberships must be paid by credit card. Once you have purchased, you will be able to see your teams in the dashboard under Purchased Teams. From there you'll be able to set up the team level and season and add the coach. Coaches will then receive an email to accept the team assignment and be able to enter students in their dashboard in Active Teams. Coaches will also have access to the Practice Tests and PowerPoints in their dashboard area once they accept the coaching assignment.
We have found that principals and secretaries sometimes place an order, but we need to be able to communicate with the coach and ship awards to coaches so be sure that the coach is entered once you have purchased your teams. If your school orders and is paying by invoice, we will expect the payment to be shipped within 30 days. We will email a reminder invoice if we have not received payment. Coaches who have not paid after 60 days will lose access to their materials and students. Awards will not be shipped to any coach who has not paid. Please send all checks to Perennial Math ,127 Noble Dr. SE, Huntsville, AL 35802. If you have inquiries about payment or need a w-9 from our company, please email us at info@perennialmath.com. If you have further concerns, you may call us at 1-855-219-6284. If you need to change your payment method from invoice to credit card, you may go to the Invoice section on your dashboard and hit the button beside the order to Change Payment Type. From there you will be able to select to pay it by credit card or PayPal.
The cost of entering the Perennial Math Contests for one season is $100 per U.S. team of up to 30 students at one testing level. U.S. School districts may call us for a bulk discount. A parent may sign up an individual student for the contests for $25 but must pay by credit card. International teams (teams outside the United States) cost $100 and must be paid by credit card. You must purchase separate memberships to participate in both seasons. Awards are only available for US memberships.
You're not too late to sign up-we can activate your account immediately and we'll bill you if we don't receive your check or purchase order in 30 days. We know what a hassle it can be to wait on all the red tape from school system accounting departments. Please don't hesitate to order-get started today so you can prepare your students.
You may purchase your membership beginning May 15 regardless to which season you plan on participating in. If you want to participate in Season 1 (November through February), you must place your order by Dec 15th. If you want to participate in Season 2 (January through April), you must place your order by February15th.
If you are the purchasing agent from a school, you must log in and create an account to set up a purchase order for the district with the number of teams and items that can be ordered. The coaches from your school district will then be able to create an account and use that purchase order number and purchase their teams. You may also choose to set up a purchase order number at the end of your purchase. There is a little link under the Purchase Order blank that says to click here to set up a new purchase order.
Please make sure that you do not have your school district mail us a purchase order withouth placing an order online. We do not place orders for you- we require you to place the order so that you create the proper usernames and passwords for your account. You may place your order without the purchase order by selecting invoice and put the purchase order number in later. We can also create a new invoice with a different date for you.
Purchasers and Coaches have Website Help Documents located in the Info and Materials section on the dashboard. The purchaser will set up each team in the Purchased Teams section on the dashboard. Each team will be assigned a coach, season and team level. If the coach is NOT the purchaser, the assigned coach will receive an email to accept the coaching assignment. Then Practice Materials will appear for each level in the Coach Materials section on the Coach Dashboard. The Coach will enter the students in the program on the Active Teams section in the dashboard. The students will be assigned a username and password. Student scores can be entered and managed here in that section and it is where a coach can change the student password if necessary.
Coaches have the option of printing the tests and putting in student's scores or letting students put in their answers for the computer to score. Coaches may use both methods because our system is set up for students to take the tests or coaches to enter scores. There may be times when a student is absent and coaches have to administer a paper test, or times when a computer lab is not available.
Even if students are taking the online version, we highly suggest that coaches print out the tests and provide students paper and pencil to work out the problems. The student can work out the problems, write their answers on the test, but enter their answers in the computer. You will then have a hard copy of the test and their answers should there be any question about the technology. The print out tests can be given back to students at the end of the year in a portfolio. This is not mandatory, but just an optional suggestion. It is a great way to show parents the test questions that the students have been working on.
No. The teacher can print the pdf files and administer in the classroom. Then the teacher will need to enter the correct answers for each student. The online version is designed to have students take the test in the computer lab and receive instant grading and feedback. However, we realize that not all teams will have access to the computer lab- so tests can be printed and administered. The tests are fill in the blank and still require students to work the problems out on paper. A coach can use both the online version and print out testing during the school year. You are not required to do all tests in the computer. You are required to enter all your students though. We have a Wall of Fame and the student name will appear on our Wall of Fame for a score of 5 or 6. Please enter the name the way you would want the name to appear. By entering your students, this gives us an accurate account of how many students are participating and how many certificates we will need to ship you.
No. Calculators are not permitted for tests.
Add your student's usernames and passwords in Active Teams on your dashboard. You may add all of your students by downloading our csv file and filling in the blanks and then uploading the file, OR you may enter one student at a time. You must create a username and password for each student. Do not use SPACES in usernames or passwords. AND please do not enter your STUDENT NAMES in ALL CAPS! For more information see the Web Help Document located in your Materials and Information on your dashboard.
To enter scores for students who take printed tests, simply login and mark the correct answers by each student's name on the Scores Update page. You can get there in two ways: 1-Look on the Menu and find Tests and under the drop down, you'll see Score Update,Or 2-Go on Active Teams in the dashboard to Team Score and you'll see an Update Score button. If students take the online test, scores will automatically appear in the test scores in your dashboard. You will be able to see their answers and scores in the Team Score area and you can still make a correction on their scores if you need to in the update scores area. For more information see the Web Help Document located in the Materials and Information section on your dashboard.
No. It will not matter if you give your students the test on different dates. We realize that classes may not meet on the same days of the week.You may also administer the contest to absent students at another time. Students who take the test after the end of the testing month may miss out on their opportunity to have their name on the Wall of Fame for that month. We suggest you administer tests early in the month so that your student's scores are in the database when the Wall of Fame names are generated. Please do not contact us to add your students to the Wall of Fame, these are automatically generated by the computer on a timed basis.
You may login as a coach and go the Enter/Edit Test Scores page and delete their score. This will reset the test and then they can log in again and enter their answers. It's important that the students write their answers on paper so that they will have them in case of any computer glitch. A lot of coaches print the pdf test file for students to have to show their work on even though they are using the computer to enter their answers.
The system will probably time out when they try to enter their answers so they should always write their answers somewhere. They can log back in and enter the answers. As long as they haven't hit the submit button, there will be no score for them in the computer. We highly suggest that you give the students a printed version of the test for them to work on and write their answers. Then when your time limit of 30 min is up, have all students log in and enter their answers.
The Power Points and practice tests are located under Materials and Information on the coach dashboard. They WILL NOT appear there until the Coach has been set up and accepted the team assignment. Be sure that the Purchaser sets up the Team Level/Season/Coach under Purchased Teams.
Only U.S. and Canadian teams receive an awards package with a certificate for each student and one medal to give to its top team member. If a team has a tie for the highest score, you will need to hold a tiebreak or purchase an additional medal. Teams who place in the top 10% for their grade level receive a plaque. Students who score in the top 10% of all participating students in that grade level receive a dog tag. Awards will be shipped in March for Season 1 and in May for Season 2. Be sure that your Shipping Address is set up correctly in your Profile and be sure to notify your office that you are expecting a package. We get a lot of coaches who think we haven't shipped awards because the school office puts the package somewhere.
International Teams will have access to pdf files for certificates for all participants and certificates for top students and teams.
Individual Student Memberships do not include a gold medal-that is for teams only. However, if your individual member scores high enough for a dog toag, we will ship that.
Team scores are derived from the sum of the top 10 cumulative scores on the team submitted by February 28th. No scores will be allowed after Feb 28th for Season 1 and after April 21st for Season 2. The team level is based on the highest grade level of the team members. For instance, if you have a team with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders-then all of the team members will receive the intermediate test and the team will be considered a 6th grade team. However, awards will be calculated for individual team members based on their grade level. Only the Team awards are based on the highest grade level of the team.
Each team receives a complimentary medal to award to the highest team member. Additional medals can be purchased online in our store for $7.50.
Each month we post the names for students who score a perfect score (Super 6) and an almost perfect score (Fab 5) on our Wall of Fame page located on our website http://perennialmath.com/wall-of-fame. We also post the names on YouTube and Facebook. Teachers can print a certificate for these winners from their coach materials link on their dashboard. We are always glad to post photos of your winners if you choose to share those with us. We do not supply a photography waiver- most schools keep a permission to photograph on file for each student at the school level.