Each round includes an individual test and a team test, and both individual and school prizes are awarded in each of two divisions. The Mandelbrot Midlevels Competition , an offshoot of the Mandelbrot Competition, is for middle-school students. Each year, more than 350,000 students participate in MathCounts , an annual math competition for students in grades 7 and 8. Through MathCounts, hundreds of corporations, foundations, and individuals, including NASA, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, join together to promote math education in the middle school. In February, each participating school selects four students to compete, both individually and as a team, in written and oral competitions.
Local winners go on to state contests.
The top four students and their coaches earn an expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals. The first part consists of a series of multiple-choice questions. The second part requires students to describe and defend their solutions to some of the problems on Part 1. Based on state rankings and the number of teams competing, teams may be scored for national ranking. Nearly 2,000 teams from schools across the United States participated in the 1999 event.