Mu Alpha Theta

Mu Alpha Theta (ΜΑΘ) is an International mathematics honor society for high school and two-year college students.

As of June 2015, it served over 108,000 student members in over 2,200 chapters in the United States and 20 foreign countries.

Buchholz High School in Gainesville FL won first place in 2023 for the 15th time in the annually held national convention.

In Andree's words, Mu Alpha Theta is "an organization dedicated to promoting scholarship in mathematics and establishing math as an integral part of high school and junior college education".

Pi Mu Epsilon, the National Collegiate Honor Society of Mathematics, contributed funds for the organization's initial expenses; the University of Oklahoma provided space, clerical help, and technical assistance.

The official journal of Mu Alpha Theta, The Mathematical Log, was first issued in 1957 on mimeograph and was in printed form starting in 1958.

It was published four times during the school year until 2002 and featured articles, reports, news, and problems for students.

As of June 2015, Mu Alpha Theta served over 108,000 student members in over 2,200 chapters in the United States and 20 foreign countries.

The first Mu Alpha Theta national convention was held at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas in 1968.

Each year the convention brings together hundreds of teachers and students from across the country for five days of math-related events.

At state and national competitions, only three levels are used: Theta (geometry and Algebra II), Alpha (pre-calculus), and calculus.

Additionally, there are usually open tests, which can be taken by students from any division, including Statistics, number theory, and the history of math.

The only exception to this is that students enrolled in either Algebra II or geometry can take whichever of the two they want because not all schools offer these courses in the same sequence.

They are sometimes used in the case when money or prizes are being distributed to the winners of the competition, and a tiebreaker will be used even if both students have a perfect score.

Due to the large number of students, as compared to a typical high school classroom, who participate in competitions, scantrons are used as answer sheets; their main advantage is that they can be graded by a computer.

A resolution committee then reviews all disputes submitted and either denies them or accepts them based on the correctness of the student's reasoning.

Most competitions have an errata sheet and verification forms to provide a central location for accepted and denied disputes.

"Sweepstakes" awards are given to the top (normally ten) schools whose students average the best performance in each test or division.

T-scores from each test and team round are weighted and added to comprise the total sweepstakes score of a school.