The World Mathematics Challenge (WMC) is an annual mathematics competition open to all high school and secondary school students. The championship round is held at different universities around the world each year.

The WMC has four rounds to it to determine a world champion in mathematics and to rank the top 50 students in the world. Problems are from basic math up to introductory calculus. The working language is English.

Selection Proccess

Each individual nation has its own open examination. The top 20 scorers on this open exam qualify for the national finals, a test that is standardized world wide. The top 20 scorers of each nation's open exam takes the national finals exam, and all who pass with a certain set score are allowed to compete internationally. This round is often called the world qualifiers. Then, those who qualify take the international test, which is the same for all competitors. This round helps to rank students as well as eliminate most of them. The top 3 scorers from each country make up the country's total score, and countries are usually very competitive about this round. The top 100 scorer from this round is allowed to travel to the championship university to try and win a individual world title as well as a title for their country.

• Round 1: National Open Exam.
• Round 2: National Finals.
• Round 3: Internationals.
• Round 4: Championship.

Rankings

Rankings are determined by the competitor's scores on the tests of round 3 and 4 relative to other scorers. Each test is worth 1000 points, and the championship round is weighted at 1.25. So the world ranking score is equal to international score + championship score x 1.25.

2008 Competition Results

Round 3: International Champions (Top 5)

Individuals Score (Country):

• 1. Liu Wan Ming 986 (China)
• 2. Zhang Yan Jiu 981(China)
• 3. Ryeuk San-Jing 979(Korea)
• 3. Wang Zang Gang 979(China)
• 5. Frank Li 977 (USA)

Country (Score):

• 1. China (2944)
• 2. Russia (2875)
• 3. Korea (2834)
• 4. Ukraine (2818)
• 5. Vietnam (2756)
• USA 7th (2649)

Round 4: Championship Round (Top 5)

Individual Score (Country)

• 1. Frank Li 932 (USA)
• 2. Liu Wan Ming 929 (China)
• 3. Zhang Yan Jiu 921 (China)
• 4. Dmitri Donskov 914 (Russia)
• 5. Wang Zang Gang 911 (China)
• 5. Li Zhi Yuan 911 (China)

2008 World Rankings (Top 10)

• 1. Liu Wan Ming 2147.25 (China)
• 2. Frank Li 2142 (USA)
• 3. Zhang Yan Jiu 2132.25 (China)
• 4. Wang Zang Gan 2117.75 (China)
• 5. Li Zhi Yuan 2113.75 (China)
• 6. Ryeuk San-Jing 2111.75 (Korea)
• 7. Dmitri Donskov 2108.5 (Russia)
• 8. Elias Boren 2105.25 (Ukraine)
• 9. Pierre Avance 2104.5 (France)
• 10. Qui Lin Jiu 2104 (China)

See also

List of mathematics competitions