General Regulations

The Pan American Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (PAGMO) should if possible be held once per calendar year. The PAGMO is governed by these General Regulations together with the Annual Regulations which specify details specific to each PAGMO or required by national law. The Annual Regulations take preference over the General Regulations.

PAGMO takes place on the dates and in a Pan American country specified in the Annual Regulations. The dates should be during the second semester of the year. A “Host Organization” specified in the Annual Regulations has overall responsibility for the organization of that year PAGMO. The Host Organization is responsible for ensuring that the arrangements for that PAGMO support the aims of the PAGMO and competition in the spirit of fair play. The Host Organization may approve extensions of the deadlines specified in the Annual Regulations.

The goal of the PAGMO is to give more girls an opportunity to perform mathematically on an international stage, and so to discover, encourage and challenge mathematically gifted young women in all the Pan American countries.

Participation

Participation in PAGMO is by invitation only. A country can request an invitation to the PAGMO from the host country, but the host country will decide whether to issue the invitation or not. Each invited country is entitled, subject to available space, to send a team consisting of up to four contestants (the “Contestants”), a Leader, and a Deputy Leader, to be known collectively as the participants (the “Participants”). To promote women’s representation in leadership positions at least one of the people with the role of Leader or Deputy Leader must be a woman. In the event that this requirement hinders a participating country's ability to take part in the competition,the situation will be reviewed by the Host Country on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, a team may bring observers.

There may be charges, specified in the Annual Regulations, for participation by teams from non-Pan American countries. An invitation to participate in a PAGMO does not confer any form of political recognition by the PAGMO or the Host Country. A Host Country may invite an additional team or teams from that country to participate in a PAGMO. Such additional teams have the same status as non-Pan American guest teams. There may be teams consisting of Contestants from more than one Pan American country if none of these countries sends a regular team. If the organization for the national Mathematical Olympiad in at least one of these countries supports the team, then this team has the same status as an official Pan American team. Otherwise, it will be considered as an invited team.

A country’s Contestants should normally be citizens or residents of that country and should be selected through that country’s national Mathematical Olympiad or equivalent selection process. All the girls, selected by their countries, who meet the following conditions are allowed to participate at PAGMO:

• have at least two years remaining of pre-university education, including the current academic year,

• not reach the age of 17 in the year of their participation in the PAGMO,

• not have participated in 2 PAGMOs previously,

• not have won a medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) nor in the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO).

In special circumstances, the PAGMO Advisory Board can approve minor deviations of these rules for specific countries on request. Information on deviations must be available to other participating countries.

Individuals other than the contestants, leader, and deputy leader - including family members -, may apply to accompany the Participants. While we welcome observers, it is important that their presence does not interfere with the participation experience of the contestants. We kindly ask all observers to respect the competition environment and allow contestants to focus fully on their tasks. If the solicitation is approved, the observer will assume one of the following positions;

• Observers A, accompanying the Leader,

• Observers B, accompanying the Deputy Leader, or

• Observers C, accompanying the contestants.

The Annual Regulations will specify whether Observers may attend a given PAGMO, the charges for Observers, and the deadlines for payment of such charges. Since extra accommodation is limited, no guarantee is given that applications to accompany the Participants will be successful.

The PAGMO is an event focused on increasing female participation as contestants in mathematical competitions. Therefore, contestants should be from this fraction of society. Also:

• In a team with successful applications for Observer A, women must represent at least 50% of the set containing the leader and Observers A.

• The rule is analog for the approved Observers B and the deputy leader.

• The Annual Regulations may recommend additional gender restrictions for countries that already participated in PAGMO a certain number of times. This proposal should be discussed with the Jury in the year before the said edition.

The Official Programme

The official programme (the “Official Programme”) as referred to below is the programme and outline itinerary for a PAGMO and associated events. The Host Organization reserves the right to amend or revise the Official Programme in whole or part. If it becomes necessary to make any significant changes, Participants and Observers of the invited countries must be notified. The Official Programme contains, among other things, details of accommodation arrangements (including food) for Participants and Observers and the venues for various official events associated with that year’s PAGMO. The detailed Official Programme may not be disclosed until arrival.

Each invited country wishing to participate in a PAGMO must confirm their participation in the way and by the date specified in the invitation. Participants, Observers, and their travel details must be registered by dates specified in the Annual Regulations. The individuals in the roles of Leaders and Deputy Leaders are responsible for the conduct of the Contestants, and for the avoidance of misunderstandings, the Leaders and Deputy Leaders are acting in loco parentis for their Contestants except in cases when the Host Organization has been notified in writing that an Observer has been nominated to act in loco parentis.

Leaders and Deputy Leaders must ensure that their Contestants know and fully understand the Contest Regulations. They must also make it clear that any Contestant who violates any of these Regulations may be liable to disqualification from the PAGMO.

Responsibility for Accommodation and Expenses

The official arrival and departure sites are specified in the Annual Regulations.

The Host Organization covers all official expenses for Participants and Observers, including:

• accommodation,

• meals,

• transport between the official arrival and departure sites and the accommodation sites,

• as well as other necessary transport between the accommodation sites and other venues on the Official Programme for all the Participants and Observers.

Other than in respect of the provision of accommodation, meals, and transport during the Official Programme as detailed previously, the Host Organization is not liable under any circumstances for any costs or expenses whatsoever or howsoever incurred by any Participant or Observer in connection with the PAGMO. In particular, the Host Organization is not liable for any expenses derived from:

• spending extra days in the Host Country outside the period specified in the Annual Regulations;

• travel to and from the Host Country incurred by Participants or Observers;

• travel within the Host Country before arrival at the chosen official arrival site or following departure from the chosen official departure site.

All Participants and Observers are responsible for obtaining full accident, health, and travel insurance if desired and the Host Organization is not liable for any expenses arising from failure to obtain such insurance.

The Host Organization must offer opportunities to Participants and Observers to go on excursions and/or cultural trips but is under no obligation to organize specific activities.

The Annual Regulations will specify whether accommodation is in shared or single rooms. When accommodation is in shared rooms, the Annual Regulations may permit application for a single room, and specify the charges for accommodation in single rooms and the deadlines for the payment of such charges. Since extra accommodation is limited, no guarantee is given that such applications will be successful.

Proposals for Problems

Each participating country other than the Host Country is invited to submit up to six proposed problems, with solutions, to be received by the Problem Selection Committee no later than the date specified in the Annual Regulations.

The proposals should, as far as possible, cover various fields of pre-university mathematics and be of varying degrees of difficulty. They should be new and may not have been suggested for or used in any other mathematics competition. The proposals and solutions must be written in English or Spanish. Proven disregard for these rules or malicious intent to propose known problems will result in a 3-year ban for the country from submitting problems.

The Problem Selection Committee selects the contest problems on the basis of the submitted proposals. The selected problems are presented to the Jury for translation before each paper. The Problem Selection Committee selects an alternative to each problem in case that problem proves to be already known when presented to the Jury. The Jury collaborates with the Problem Selection Committee to determine the final problems for the competition.

Contest Regulations

The contest element of PAGMO (the “Contest”) takes place on two consecutive days specified in the Annual Regulations, under the direction of the Chief Invigilator appointed by the Host Organization. On each day of the Contest the examination starts in the morning and lasts for four and a half hours. Each of the two examination papers consists of three problems.

Each Contestant may receive the problems in one or two languages, previously requested during registration, provided that the Jury has approved the corresponding translation.

Each Contestant must work independently and submit solutions in her own language. The solutions must be written on answer sheets provided by the Host Organization. Contestants must write on only one side of each answer sheet.

The only instruments permitted in the Contest are writing and drawing instruments, such as rulers and compasses. In particular, books, papers, tables, calculators, protractors, computers and communication devices are not allowed into the examination room.

The Jury, Observers and any others who have any knowledge of the problems and solutions before the examinations must do their utmost to ensure that no Contestant has any information, direct or indirect, about any proposed problem. They must also ensure that each day’s Contest problems and solutions are kept strictly confidential until after that day’s paper is over. They are prohibited, between the presentation of the each day’s problems to the Jury and the conclusion of that paper, from participating in any mathematical coaching with Contestants, Deputy Leaders and Observers B and C. Similarly, Contestants, Deputy Leaders and Observers B and C are barred from participating in mathematical coaching with Leaders and Observers A during the same time slots.

Prizes

Individual Prizes

The total number of prizes (first, second and third) must be approved by the Jury and should be approximately half the total number of Contestants. The numbers of first, second and third prizes should be approximately in the ratio 1:2:3. These calculations are made on the basis of the performances of members of official Pan American teams. Prizes are awarded to participants from guest teams and any additional teams on the basis of these boundaries set by the Jury.

Special prizes may be awarded for solutions considered outstanding by the Jury. Proposals for such special prizes are put forward by the Chief Coordinator appointed by the Host Organization.

The prizes are awarded at the Closing Ceremony. Each Contestant who has not received a first, second or third prize receives a Certificate of Honourable Mention if she has received seven points for the solution of at least one problem.

Each individual who participated in PAGMO will receive a Certificate of Participation.

Perseverance Cup

The Perseverance Cup is a prize awarded by the host country of the national competition to the team that shows the most improvement in their performance during the event.

Regulations

All countries that have participated in at least two of the last three previous PAGMOs (with any number of students) and that compete with a full team that year are eligible to compete for the Cup. The top team will be awarded the cup based on the greatest score of relative progress, which is calculated as follows:

1. Each year, the overall average score of all participating students is calculated.

2. The annual average of each team is calculated (the sum of the scores of the students in the delegation, divided by the number of team members) and is then divided by the corresponding overall annual average. This result is multiplied by 100. The resulting number is called the team's normalized average for that year.

3. The average for the last two years of participation for each team is calculated (the sum of the two normalized averages obtained during the last two years of participation, divided by 2).

4. The relative progress of each team is the difference between the normalized average for the current year and 1.1 times the average of the previous two years of participation.

The formula has been designed considering the following:

• The purpose of the Cup is to promote the progress of the teams, keeping in mind that high absolute scores are regularly rewarded during the competition. Therefore, the factor 1.1 in point (4) has the effect of giving more value to growth for teams with lower scores. (For example, the formula considers that a team that raises its average from 30 to 40 has less relative progress than a team that raises its average from 15 to 25.)

• The problems proposed in a particular Olympiad may be more difficult than in previous ones. By normalizing (dividing by the overall averages of the corresponding years), the possibility is eliminated that countries with low scores not dependent on the difficulty of the test (e.g., consistently scoring 0) could rank higher than other countries that have relatively improved from previous years (e.g., countries that score negatively due to the increased difficulty of the exam).

• The factor of 100 in point (2) is intended to avoid working with too many decimal places.

In the event of a tie, the following points will be considered in successive order:

1. If one of the tied teams did not have full team participation in previous years (those considered when applying the formula), priority will be given to the team with greater participation (this number is obtained as the quotient of the number of students who participated, divided by the number of students who should have participated).

2. If the tie persists, the team with the greater absolute progress (i.e., without considering the 1.1 factor in point (4)) will be given priority.

3. If the tie still persists, the team with the higher average in the year of the competition for the Cup will win.

Each year, the Cup will be named in honor of a distinguished female mathematician, recognizing her contributions to the field and serving as inspiration to participants. 

Jury Regulations

The “Jury” consists of all Leaders, together with a Chairwoman.

• A Leader may be replaced by their Deputy Leader in an emergency (subject to the prior approval and consent of the Chairwoman of the Jury).

• Observers A, members of the Problem Selection Committee and the Coordinators may also attend meetings of the Jury as observers.

• Observers are not entitled to speak or vote. However, they may exceptionally speak at the explicit request of the Chairwoman of the Jury.

• Deputy Leaders and Observers B may attend, as observers, meetings of the Jury held after the Contest.

• Only Leaders of official Pan American teams may vote in the decisions of the Jury and each such Leader has one vote.

• A motion is carried by a simple majority of those voting. In the event of a tie, the Chairwoman has a casting vote.

The Jury may appoint sub-committees to consider specific matters. The meetings of the Jury are conducted mainly in English or Spanish.

On or before each day of the Contest the Jury approves the Contest problems selected by the Problem Selection Committee, or alternative problems if a problem proves to be already known, and approves the translations of the Contest problems into all the required languages.

The Jury approves the marking schemes for each problem. Initial proposals for marking schemes are prepared under the direction of the Chief Coordinator.

On each day of the Contest, the Jury considers written questions raised by Contestants during the first half hour of the Contest and decides on replies.

After the Contest, the Jury:

• receives and approves a report made by the Chief Invigilator on the conduct of the examinations;

• receives a report from the Chief Coordinator on any unresolved disputes which may have arisen during coordination and determines the appropriate scores;

• approves the scores of all Contestants;

• decides winners of first, second and third prizes;

• considers and makes decisions on all proposals to award special prizes;

• considers matters raised to the PAGMO Advisory Board about future PAGMOs.

Any allegation or suspicion of a violation of the Regulations generally must be reported to the Chair of the Jury. If she considers there is a prima facie case, she must form a committee to investigate further. The committee must report its findings to the Jury. The Jury must decide whether a violation has occurred and, if it decides that one has, then it must decide what sanction, if any, to apply. Possible sanctions include the disqualification of an individual Contestant or an entire team from the current competition. The decision of the Jury is final.

Coordination

Coordination is the process where the official scores of each Contestant are determined in a homogeneous, fair and transparent manner. Leaders of each country must submit the papers of their Contestants to a coordination group provided by the Host Organization. The coordination group consists of a Chief Coordinator and, for each problem, a Problem Captain and a group of Coordinators for that problem.

For each problem, each Contestant receives an integer score out of a maximum of seven points.

Prior to coordination, Contestants’ solutions are assessed by Leaders and Deputy Leaders, and, independently, by Coordinators, in accordance with the marking schemes approved by the Jury.

Each coordination session involves two Coordinators provided by the Host Organization and representatives of the relevant country. Two representatives, normally the Leader and Deputy Leader, are permitted to participate actively in any one session. With the approval of the Coordinators, one further representative may be present to observe the coordination process but cannot take any active part in it.

The Leader and the designated Coordinators should agree on the scores for each Contestant. These scores are recorded on official forms and signed by the Leader and the Coordinators. If the Leader and the Coordinators fail to agree on a score for a Contestant, the matter is first referred to the Problem Captain for that problem, provided by the Host Organization. If there is still no agreement, the matter is referred to the Chief Coordinator. If the Leader and Chief Coordinator then fail to agree on a score, the Chief Coordinator reports the matter to the Jury with a recommendation as to what the score should be. The Jury then determines the final score.

If, during a coordination session, the designated Coordinators consider that an irregularity may have occurred, they must immediately refer the matter to the Chief Coordinator. She must report the situation to the Chairwoman of the Jury, unless she is confident that there is no issue requiring further action.

For each problem, solutions by Contestants from the Host Country are coordinated by the Leader and Deputy Leader of the country that submitted the problem, with the assistance of the Problem Captain for that problem.

Entire Agreement and Understanding

The Participants and Observers acknowledge that these Regulations, and the documents referred to herein, constitute the full agreement and understanding of their parties and supersede any previous discussions or representations made by or on the behalf of the Host Organization in respect of an PAGMO.

Force Majeure

In these Regulations, “force majeure” means any cause preventing the Host Organization from performing any or all of its obligations that arises from or is attributable to acts, events, omissions or accidents beyond the reasonable control of the party so prevented, including without limitation strikes, lock-outs or other industrial disputes (whether involving the workforce of the party so prevented or of any other party), act of God, war, riot, civil commotion, malicious damage, compliance with any law or governmental order, rule, regulation or direction, accident, breakdown of plant or machinery, earthquake, typhoon, fire, flood, storm, or default of suppliers or subcontractors.

If the Host Organization is prevented from or delayed in performing any of its obligations to the Participants and Observers under these Regulations by force majeure, it has no liability in respect of the performance of those obligations affected by the force majeure events, both during the continuation of such events and for such time after they cease as is necessary for the Host Organization to recommence its affected operations in order for it to perform its obligations.