The iTest

The iTest Debate begins February 23!

2009-02-09T13:25:00.003-06:00

Check out www.theitest.com for more details later today regarding registration and rules.

This is a brand-new forensics/debate event and one high school students will definitely enjoy.

The 2008 iTest, ads on Facebook, and the launch of the iTest Debate

2008-08-30T18:53:00.004-05:00

Most readers of this blog know the 2008 iTest will be starting in a matter of days, and have already registered. Good luck to you - you'll need it!

After reviewing the draft copy of the exam, I believe this will be our best iTest yet. Congratulations to Mathew and his staff for a job very well done in preparing an exam that pushes the boundaries of what is possible with a math competition.

The iTest's advertising this year is entirely online and centered around Facebook. With its highly-targeted marketing program, the iTest will be able to reach out to high school students themselves instead of our educator-oriented mailings of years past. We'll see how this different approach works this year and tweak as necessary moving forward.

The iTest organization is also ready to announce it's first major expansion: The iTest Debate. This event will debut in February 2009, and more details will be made available in October of this year.

So if you haven't registered for the 2008 iTest yet, go to www.theitest.com and get it done! September 10 will be here soon. Good luck!

2008 iTest Changes

2008-07-20T22:29:00.002-05:00

In 2008, the iTest continues to evolve. The format changes once again for the 2008 iTest, but this change may prove permanent if successful.

First, the iTest aims to be as inclusive as possible, providing opportunities for a very broad array of students to compete in a national math competition. For this reason, we are expanding the total number of problems, including more problems at the easier end of the spectrum, as well as more at the approximate level of the AMC 10 and AMC 12 exams.

The harder end of the test will remain similar to the recent past, but the proof problems will disappear. Tie breaking will be time-based.

Many of the 100 problems on the 2008 iTest will involve a storyline that will provide various forms of context for many of the problems. We believe this approach will provide a unique opportunity to educate certain types of learners in addition to making the contest more enjoyable.

Additionally, teams from multiple states will be disallowed. We believe the contest to be more beneficial to more students, and more interesting as a competition with MOP dream teams essentially disallowed. This also prevents the need for a red queen race between increasingly more knowledgeable MOSPers and problem writers who often spend 10-12 hours crafting a single problem to challenge the best and brightest students. Added time pressure should also prevent the need for more than a few difficult-to-write olympiad level problems.

We believe the iTest loses nothing, and gains significantly with these changes, and that the 2008 iTest will be the most enjoyable of the iTest competitions to date.

We thank Zach Abel and Adam Hesterberg for their continued contributions to the test-writing process.

We also thank the Southern Company for providing generous support, enabling us to improve and expand the iTest.

iTest TOC Statistics -- First Two Rounds

2008-03-28T16:04:00.003-05:00

I just got done reviewing statistics for the first couple of rounds of the 2008 iTest TOC. At first, I just wanted to look through them for the fun of it, but as soon as I did it occurred to me that I should take the opportunity to think about how hard the problems are for each round's competitors. This helps me know how hard to craft future problems.

Similarly to last year, I wrote nearly all the problems for the first three rounds (unlike last year, I split duties with Adam Hesterberg and Zach Abel for the last three rounds -- just the three hard geometry problems were due to Zach last year). The problems are intended to be AIME level during the first three rounds -- mostly mid to hard AIME level given that students do have several days to work, but are also challenged for speed. I am always interested in feedback on the problems in order to improve the competition.

While they are difficult to write, my hope is to continue to include a few puzzle problems. I have always enjoyed them more than most other problem types, and they are a little more rare in American mathematics competitions. A competition like this one may simple be a better venue for them than most.

Statistics -- Rounds 1 and 2

Judging from the statistics, the problems have been at an appropriate level. Only six students have answered all ten correctly during the first two rounds. One of those, In Young Cho, has been defeated in Round 2 due to superior time performance by Jeffrey Chen. Congratulations to Cho on a nice performance.

Edit: Justin Kopinsky also correctly answer all 10 problems, making 7 students total. But like Cho, Kopinsky was defeated in Round 2, with Jeremy Hahn solving all five problems in less time. Perhaps Hahn wants to keep the TOC championship at East Chapel Hill (2007 iTest TOC champion Arnav Tripathy graduated from East Chapel Hill).

One surprise to me is that Round 2 problem 4 was the easiest of the round. Out of the 26 students to submit answers, nobody missed it, while five and six students respectively missed problems 1 and 3.

Problem 5 was the hardest on both rounds so far, which is not a big surprise. But I don't believe this was the case last year.

Of the students who submitted problems during the first two rounds, average scores in both rounds were between 17 and 18 points. I didn't really have a goal for that average score, but I feel like these scores suggest that the problems are at a reasonable level of difficulty. It's also probably true that these averages are mildly inflated given that a few students in each round did not submit scores. While in some cases this may reflect that a student simply did not have time to compete or chose to pursue other priorities, it is also likely that a few students did not submit scores in anticipation of defeat, meaning they failed to solve at least one of the problems.

I doubt Round 1 will ever have full participation for this reason, though it's nice to see that over the past couple of years, participation in later rounds has been nearly full.

So, in total, there were five perfect scorers in the "Sweet 16". I'll try to report back as the contest progresses.

Please let us know what you think about the problems in terms of difficulty and topic spread.

New Blog

2008-03-27T23:20:00.002-05:00

Building my own new blog (here) has spurred me to display my thoughts more freely on the internet once again. I hadn't posted here much at all, but I will probably cross-post some now that I am writing.

I hope students are enjoying the 2008 iTest TOC problems as much as I have enjoyed crafting solutions to them. It is not an easy task to put together a competition with problems as hard as these must be, but it's worth it. I believe there are students exploring new concepts at each level of the competition, and even more enjoying the test of their problem solving skills.

With Round 4 beginning next week, now we get to see who can wrangle Zach Abel's geometry beasts, and the rest of the problems as well.

Tournament of Champions Round 1 Underway

2008-03-11T21:23:00.002-05:00

Round 1 of the 2008 iTest Tournament of Champions is well underway, with the initial set of questions being released yesterday and posted on the iTest homepage.

This year's set of contestants are extremely talented and it should be a brutal fight to determine this year's National Champion. Of course, we're also very excited about our testwriting team, led by Mathew Crawford.

Should be another very exciting year of competition. Looking forward to seeing what upsets and breakout performances we have in our opening round!

iTest TOC

2008-02-03T21:29:00.000-06:00

The first three rounds of the 2008 iTest TOC are nearly polished, and the last three rounds are not far from complete as well. The problems are a little harder this year than last, as I expect the greater participation by top students in the 2007 iTest to carry over into the TOC. This is part of the reason I asked Adam Hesterberg to join the iTest writing staff. He and Zach Abel have each contributed three problems to the mix, and the overall level of difficult is a step up. As usual, we ask Zach to write the hardest geometry problems, which are always impressive. I have been impressed as well with Adam's creativity. His problems are great, and different from what students usually see on contests.

I know the entire iTest staff is excited and interested to see how many students are able to solve all the problems at each level.

City kids' math, reading scores lag (taken from Associated Press)

2007-11-15T15:17:00.000-06:00

Now that the iTest has established itself within the core "math competition" high school demographic, deeper market penetration into harder-to-reach schools with no strong math culture in place. As the article below indicates, these are the schools that can most benefit from the iTest organization.

City kids' math, reading scores lag
Gains made, but not as much as rest of U.S. grade school students

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - Students in selected city schools are making modest gains on math and reading tests, but they continue to lag their counterparts nationwide, scores released Thursday show.

Eleven urban school districts volunteered to have their students take the tests and be compared with students across the country. The districts were: Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; San Diego; and Washington. Generally, the students in the urban districts scored lower, on average, than the nation. Only Austin and Charlotte posted average scores that mirrored public schools nationally or were higher in some cases.

The city school districts have higher concentrations of minority and low-income students than schools nationwide. Students from these groups tend to score lower on achievement tests than others.

A goal of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law is to reduce achievement gaps between minority and white students and low-income kids and their wealthier peers.

Tests have staff consequences

The law is mainly focused on reading and math and requires schools to test students annually in those subjects and face consequences for missing testing benchmarks. The consequences include, but aren't limited to, having to replace teachers or principals.

Schools have to report test scores by subgroups of students and must show progress is being made. All kids are supposed to be working at grade level by 2014.

Atlanta and Washington were the only districts to see their scores rise significantly over the past two years on the fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests as well as the math tests for both grades.

Both districts, particularly Washington, excluded more kids with limited English skills and disabilities from some tests this year. They weren't alone in taking that action, which can sometimes lead to higher test scores.

Atlanta school superintendent Beverly Hall attributed her district's progress to high-quality professional development for teachers, the recruitment of strong principals, and more time devoted to reading and math.

"If students are taught well, they will learn," Hall said. "I don't think it's rocket science. I don't think there's any quick fix."

Scores from 'Nation's report card'

The scores are from the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given nationwide periodically on a range of subjects. Known as "the nation's report card," it is considered the best way to compare student achievement across state and district lines.

Math and reading scores released in September for students nationally showed students overall are improving steadily in math but making slower progress in reading.

"These urban districts pretty well mimic the nation," said Darvin Winick, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests. "Reading is up. Math is up more."
More specifically, the results show:
Atlanta, Boston, New York and Washington posted higher fourth-grade math scores this year than in 2005, the previous time the tests were given. Cleveland saw its scores drop, while the rest of the districts had flat scores.

In eighth-grade math, Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington had higher scores than two years ago. There was no change for the other districts.

Atlanta and Washington saw their fourth-grade reading scores go up in the two-year period, while Houston scores declined. Scores were flat in the other districts.

On the eighth-grade reading test, Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston and Washington saw their scores increase from 2005. Scores were flat elsewhere.

Some districts that failed to show progress since 2005 did improve when compared over a longer term. For example, while Los Angeles showed no improvement in eighth-grade reading in the past two years, it posted a higher score this year than in 2002.

Results to be posted tonight

2007-11-01T17:43:00.001-05:00

2007 iTest full results will be posted tonight on the iTest homepage.

As a reminder, the Tournament of Champions participants will be determined by the following index:

2007 iTest score (out of 100) and adding your AMC 12 score (out of 150; we'll take the higher of the two if you take both A and B).

The top 64 high school mathematics students in the nation, as ranked by this Index, will be invited to participate in the 2008 iTest Tournament of Champions. (The 2008 iTest Tournament of Champions is an NCAA Tournament-style individual elimination event that will take place next spring. The top 64 math students in the nation will compete head-to-head each week until one student remains - the 2008 iTest National Mathematics Champion.)

And also, say hello to Mathew Crawford, our newest iTest Blog contributor and the iTest Mathematics Portfolio Manager, in charge of the creation of all mathematics-related iTest content next year. Glad to have him with us.

An Ironic First Contribution

2007-10-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Adam Hesterberg recently joined the iTest writing staff. Since he was the only student to correctly solve every problem on the 2007 iTest Tournament of Champions, we expect him to help raise the standard of the iTest yet higher. Immediately he asked to start working on some of the potential iTest TOC problems. Pleased with his enthusiasm, I sent him a file of problems I've been writing and collecting. So, as iTest TOC perfect scorer, he quickly sends back answers to all the problems I sent, missing the very first problem -- probably the easiest of the bunch.

2007 iTest Video Contest Submissions

2007-09-22T22:13:00.001-05:00

I am absolutely blown away by the quality of the submissions we received for the 2007 iTest Video Contest. (For more information on this side contest we ran this year alongside the actual 2007 iTest exam, go here.)

While no decision will be announced regarding the winner of this contest until the November 1 Nationwide Awards Announcement, I figured we could go ahead and post the four submissions we received here in the iTest Blog!

If you are out there reading this, and had anything to do with the conception or production of any of these videos, you should give yourself a hand. These are amazing. We look forward to using these videos to communicate with our sponsors (and potential sponsors!) the overall level of enthusiasm and passion that's out there for iTest events. These videos deservedly will be publicized heavily.

Also, the judging of these videos will begin immediately, but we're not going to disclose the exact process of determining the winner until November 1.

Without further ado, in randomized order, the YouTube version of each video...

1) "All Around the Table"

2) "Something to do with Apple?"

3) "Kitty Knows The Real Answer"

4) "To The Fifth Power Rangers"

2007 iTest Post-Mortem

2007-09-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

Couple of thoughts I need to get down on the Blog before I forget them.

1) Excellent work by our staff. Dave Cowart did an excellent job handling the iTest website responsibilities amidst all his other things going on, and same for Mathew Crawford in answering emails over the weekend regarding specific iTest content questions.

The only reason the 2007 iTest went as well as it did, with as few people as we utilize, is because the effort started so many months ago. Thanks to Mathew, Nathan, and Zach for great questions. Dave, great job working on the site over time and continuing to fine-tune.

2) We've got to provide educators/sponsors with a dashboard where they can see all of their teams in real-time. This will cut down on a lot of the effort we had to do this year in helping teams change members, change Captains, and change passwords. This will be in the works very soon.

3) Along the same lines, we've got to do a better job communicating that once the competition begins, no changes can be made. Teams simply have to take responsibility for their selection of members and their all-important Team Captain.

That being said, I do want to experiment by adding the ability of team members to "mutiny" and change the Captain designation from one team member to another by virtue of a majority vote during the competition. This will likely only be possible once per team during any given iTest competition.

4) Procrastination is not a good idea in life, and it's not for iTest events either. We've been slammed with record server activity for two years in a row now at the very end of the competition. Get your answers in early. We've got to communicate this better as well next year.

5) Overall, great competition for us. Sets us up well for the launch of the iTest CS as well as another strong iTest Tournament of Champions run. We'll be looking for student input around the time of the iTest CS on what our next competition should be.

Now, we've just got to keep the financial contributions coming in. Students, if your parents are looking for a tax write-off...we've got your place to contribute!

Thanks for a great competition and to students, educators, and parents for your participation in the 2007 iTest. Now it's time to sleep.

2007 iTest Answer Key

2007-09-16T18:27:00.000-05:00

The 2007 iTest Solutions Manual (a thorough, extremely well-written document you'll want to check out) will be posted on the iTest site sometime tomorrow. Until then, here is the 2007 iTest Answer Key.

Many thanks to a great test-writing staff - Mathew Crawford, Zach Abel, and Nathan Savir - for an excellent job on the 2007 iTest exam. This is the caliber of event that we want students, educators, and parents to associate with the iTest organization.

PS...don't forget about the 2007 iTest Video Contest ... submissions due in 9/21. Check the August blog entry for more details if you haven't seen info already.

2007 iTest Answer Key

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. C
5. B
6. E
7. A
8. B
9. A
10. C
11. G
12. C
13. K
14. G
15. C
16. M
17. F
18. I
19. L
20. M
21. L
22. A
23. F
24. R
25. X
26. 300
27. 16
28. 72
29. 28
30. 10
31. 21840
32. 14
33. 80
34. 5
35. 96,433,469
36. 63.
37. 65
38. 19683
39. 13
40. 641999
41. 2004
42. 17
43. 751
44. 1109
45. 237
46. 2006
47. 1447
48. 13
49. 246
50. 1882
51. 516
52. 1536
53. 501
54. 1087
55. 225
56. 810
57. 57
58. 339
59. 17
60. 111

Tiebreakers: graded only if necessary to break ties among top national teams or for state championships.

2007 iTest: Closing Thoughts

2007-09-16T18:20:00.000-05:00

As the 2007 iTest wraps up, here are some thoughts and announcements: (cross-posted on the iTest website, www.theitest.com)

1) Check the iTest Blog after the competition ends for the Answer Key, as well as on a regular basis for iTest organizational news and announcements.

2) The iTest CS, the new high school computer science competition, will take place in the Spring of next year. Once details are locked down, they will be made public on the iTest Blog. This will happen over the next couple of months.

3) Make sure your email address can receive emails from "theitest.com" domain. This may require checking with a school I.T. administrator at your school or within your school system. We've tried to correspond with multiple students and teachers but have received "failure notices" because our email was blocked. We don't generally try the email again if this happens.

4) Please email us with thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc. on this year's exam. If you have generally positive things to say, make sure you include your name, school, grade (or position, if a teacher) if you don't mind us using your quote down the line.

5) The results of the 2007 iTest will be announced on Thursday, November 1, at 7 PM Central...as part of our annual iTest Nationwide Awards Announcement.

6) The iTest National Rankings will be published for the first time on November 1 as well. These Rankings rank the best math students in the United States, and will be used to determine invitees to the 2008 iTest Tournament of Champions. As indicated in a previous post, the iTest Rankings Index will be determined by 2007 iTest score and 2008 AMC 12 score.

Upon conclusion of the 2007 iTest, check here for your official 2007 iTest Answer Key.

2007-09-16T14:31:00.001-05:00

The 2007 iTest Answer Key will be posted here upon conclusion of the 2007 iTest (at 7 PM Central).

Having trouble joining an iTest team?

2007-09-10T21:44:00.001-05:00

If you're having trouble joining an existing iTest team, make sure you're using that team's TEAM ID NUMBER to join the existing team (instead of any other team identifier).

The 2007 iTest begins in 2 days!

2007-09-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

Get registered today by heading over to the iTest website and signing up!

With a competition written by noted textbook author Mathew Crawford, Princeton math club president Nathan Savir, and Harvard University's Zachary Abel, the 2007 iTest will not disappoint.

Educators, we invite you to download the PDF we'll make available on our site throughout the year and pull problems to supplement your curriculum year-round, well after the competition has ended.

And all of this...for free! Thanks to Southern Company, the Title Sponsor of the 2007 iTest, for making this possible.

If you encounter any issues getting registered or with the website at all, contact me directly at bradleymetrock@theitest.com, and we'll get you straightened out.

2007 iTest Brochures Hit Schools Nationwide

2007-09-03T19:06:00.000-05:00

Over the past week and heading into this week, 2007 iTest informational brochures should be hitting your school. These brochures were prepared in cooperation with our Title Sponsor, Southern Company, and explain how the iTest works and why students and educators should care.

The update to our website should be up and running by the end of the week, leaving plenty of time after that to get registered for the event starting on Thursday September 13.

The 'i' in iTest once again means "international"

2007-08-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

EDIT: As pointed out to me, the official language of Macedonia is Macedonian! Not Greek. My apologies. Bradley

Back in 2005, the iTest allowed a fairly large school in Warsaw to participate in the competition on a trial basis. We wanted to get a feel for how international schools would deal with a number of issues, probably the biggest of which was handling the exam submission time that was I think 2 AM in the morning for them. This pilot went well and the iTest then knew that international expansion was possible, at least in the high school mathematics realm.

In 2006, we did not have any international schools participate during the competition period, but the positive exposure on a number of foreign internet sites regarding that particular exam helped build credibility abroad.

Officially, the iTest's policy is that while we don't overtly market ourselves to schools internationally, we now feel like we have the operational capacity to allow them to participate, if they so choose. There are no state-level awards for international schools given by the iTest, but students at these schools remain eligible to win the grand prize.

All this is simply leading up to the announcement that we're working with a school this year in Macedonia to provide iTest content to an entire school of around 900 students. This school will have some participating teams in the 2007 iTest when it occurs, and will (like many other schools here in the US) use the exam as an additional component of classroom curriculum at times throughout the year.

I often refer to the iTest as bringing an "open source" approach to education, as we allow our content to be used in a number of ways (all after the competition concludes each year, of course) and to be changed and altered by educators as necessary to conform to a particular school's curricular needs. For example, we heard once about an educator stripping out the first 5 problems of the iTest and giving these problems as 'bonus questions' on a pre-calculus exam. This is the essence of an "open source" mentality - our content is malleable and ready to augment the US educational system in a variety of capacities.

This school in Macedonia, once the iTest is complete, will translate iTest problems into Macedonian (native language) and will focus on specific questions (over the course of the year) across the entire school's mathematics curriculum. They will do with the iTest what they need to do to help their students.

Just another example of the iTest reaching out and serving educational needs, even if they're not here at home.

iTest Video Contest - Q&A

2007-08-17T17:10:00.000-05:00

This post will be for answering 2007 iTest Video Contest questions that are posed to me by students, educators, or parents leading up to the contest deadline.

Q. Is there a place where I can download "Typical" by Mute Math for free?

A. Not that we're aware of. We strongly encourage purchasing the song through a secure online vendor, such as iTunes, where the song can routinely be purchased for $.99. The song may be available on the band's MySpace page or website, but we have not confirmed this. The iTest is not responsible for reimbursement of any costs associated with producing contest video submissions.

Q. In the 2007 iTest video contest rules and requirements, rule number five says that the first verse and chorus of the song ("Typical" by Mute Math) are required to be used in each video submission.Which part of the song is the "first verse" and the which part is the "chorus?"

A. In the 'radio single' version of the song, the first verse begins around 30 seconds into the song and lasts until about 50 seconds into the song, while the chorus begins around 50 seconds into the track and lasts until about a minute and 15 seconds into the song. The album version of the song will add about 15 seconds to these times.

The first verse consists of these lyrics:

Come on can’t I dream for one day
There’s nothing that can’t be done
But how long should it take somebody
Before they can be someone

The chorus consists of these lyrics:

Cause I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feeling like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical

Marketing and Promotion

2007-08-09T08:58:00.000-05:00

I'm looking forward to the day when the iTest can market and promote itself and its competitions to the level that Fortune 500 companies do leading up to a major product launch.

Take a quick look at everything Microsoft is doing to ensure the success of its vaunted Halo 3 launch, occurring in September just like the 2007 iTest (courtesy of Microsoft promotion blog/marketing vehicle Gamerscore):

- Mountain Dew will unveil the first beverage co-branded with a video game, Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Game Fuel has the same great taste of Mountain Dew with an invigorating blast of citrus cherry flavor and added caffeine for maximum intensity. Game Fuel will come in 20-ounce bottles, 2-liter bottles and 12-packs of 12-ounce cans and will be available nationwide for a limited time starting Aug. 13, 2007.
- In a few select markets, Mountain Dew will offer a special-edition aluminum bottle of Mountain Dew Game Fuel with an exclusive design created by Bungie Studios, the developers of Halo 3. This bottle will be available in very limited quantities, making it a highly sought-after collector’s item.
- 7-Eleven today confirmed its plans to support the launch of Halo 3 through a variety of in-store promotions, including three Halo 3-branded collectible Slurpee cups. In addition,7-Eleven will run a Halo 3 promotion with Mountain Dew Game Fuel and Doritos, with thousands of Halo 3-themed prizes, including, as grand prize, a chance to win a minor role as a voice actor in the upcoming Xbox 360 video game, Halo Wars, by Ensemble Studios.
- Pontiac will host Pontiac Gamers Garage events in select locations, providing consumers with a chance to play the game for the first time before its release. In addition, in support of the launch of its upcoming high-performance G6 GXP Street, Pontiac is offering 1,000 consumers a chance to win a copy of the game; one lucky gamer will win a limited-edition Halo 3 G6 GXP Street car.
- Burger King Corp. will continue its sponsorship of Xbox 360 with national, in-restaurant support from Sept. 24 through Oct. 22. Halo 3-themed packaging will offer customers access to exclusive content by logging on to http://www.bk.com/halo3 beginning Sept. 23. Graphics will be featured on select packaging, including the 42-ounce cup and King FRYPOD.
- Comcast has also joined the Halo 3 campaign and will host exclusive video content, including user-generated movies and machinima, on its Web sites http://gameinvasion.net and http://www.ziddio.com. Comcast will also feature standard- and high-definition Halo 3 videos on its signature ON DEMAND service.
- Halo 3 is also the official sponsor of the Projekt Revolution tour this summer, which includes bands Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance. Exclusive Halo 3 VIP events will take place in select cities on the tour, where attendees will receive Halo 3-themed merchandise and have an opportunity to meet the members of Linkin Park.

This is the standard of excellence the iTest needs to emulate. Doesn't matter that we're a non-profit and Microsoft is a massive very-much-for-profit. They do good work and their product tie-ins and marketing ploys are good stuff.

Wouldn't it be a huge success, in and of itself, if marketing tools were used to get more and more high school students to participate in math? Or academic competitions in general?

2007 iTest Video Contest

2007-08-01T22:14:00.001-05:00

The 2007 iTest will feature a video contest as the main side contest to this year's event.

Prize? $200 gift card to Best Buy for the winning student or student team.

The 2007 iTest Video Contest is open to any high school student attending a school where students are participating in the 2007 iTest. Students participating in the Video Contest do not have to be 2007 iTest participants themselves, although we encourage Video Contest entrants to also participate in the iTest itself.

Students can work alone or with other students (no restrictions on how many students can work together on a team) to create a video highlighting student participation in the 2007 iTest. Students working together to solve problems, meeting after school to delegate responsibilities and allocate team resources to be used in trying to attain the best team score, students hustling to get problems solved prior to the submission deadline ... all of these things would make for compelling video footage as part of a 2007 iTest Video Contest submission.

There are some rules of the game, though:

2007 iTest Video Contest Rules and Requirements

1) Each participating student/student team in the Video Contest may only submit one video entry.
2) Each video entry must be between 60 and 90 seconds in length.
3) Each video entry must be submitted to bradleymetrock@theitest.com in AVI or MPEG format by no later than 11:59 PM Central time on Friday, September 21. This additional time beyond the submission deadline for the 2007 iTest is designed to allow participating iTest students time after the math exam is complete to get in their video submissions.
4) Each video entry must display the 2007 iTest logo (any color is fine) for at least 3 seconds at the beginning of the video as part of an introductory/title screen. How this is done is up to participating students, and the size of the logo on screen can vary as necessary, but it needs to be clearly visible up front.
5) Each video entry must incorporate the song "Typical" by Mute Math into the submission. Particularly, the first verse and chorus of the song are REQUIRED to be used in each video submission. Beyond that, students/student teams are welcome to be creative in splicing other parts of the song, looping parts of the song, etc. ONLY this song should be used, and no other, in creating the video (although parts of the video can have ambient audio, if desired).
6) Each video entry should conclude with a "credits" section. This section does not have to count toward the time length requirement of 60-90 seconds.
7) Each video entry should be posted on YouTube with appropriate search keywords and text description at the time of submission to the iTest staff.
8) There are no restrictions on type of camera or film that may be used in this contest.
9) Among all submissions, 3-5 finalists will be selected and made available for download on the iTest website sometime in October. The winning video will be chosen from among these finalists by no later than November 1, 2007. All video submissions are property of the iTest. Decisions made by the iTest in determining finalists and the winning video are final. Decisions will be based on creativity, adherence to the above guidelines, overall clarity of what is going on in the video, and ability of the iTest staff to re-use the video in marketing the competition in subsequent years.
10) Please direct any questions regarding this video side contest that are not answered above to Bradley Metrock, President, the iTest at bradleymetrock@theitest.com. Check back on this blog for any additional information regarding this contest!

Thanks, and good luck.

Finding What's Next

2007-07-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

Been taking a little bit of time to think about what direction the iTest might head in after the iTest CS gets launched next year...

Some options:

- iTest Physics
- iTest Finance
- iTest Jr. (an iTest math offering for younger students)
- iTest Medicine (an iTest team event for med school students)

There are others as well...

Physics would be a nice fit. Finance would be good too, but are there really that many students in high school interested in that? We're definitely going to move into some events for younger students, but I don't know if we have the manpower to deal with some of the issues there (e.g. privacy laws, etc.) in modifying our site for younger age kids. iTest Medicine is a great one, but will require a little bit of additional marketing oomph to initially spread the word.

Finance could actually be pretty interesting, combining some basic financial concepts with a stock-picking element in a week-long team-based format. I bet there'd be more than one financial institution interested in helping out. Just some food for thought, for now.

Getting ready for the 2007 iTest

2007-07-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

The 2007 iTest is a few months away, but we are still busy preparing to make it the best iTest experience yet.

Southern Company, the 2007 iTest's Title Sponsor, is reviewing the mail-out registration brochure that will hit schools sometime in mid-August. Mathew Crawford (iTest Tournament of Champions testwriting leader and noted competitive math textbook author) and Nathan Savir (Princeton University math club President) have been coordinating the creation of the 2007 iTest exam itself. And the iTest Board of Directors will convene, as they do once a year, sometime in the next 30 days to discuss the next fiscal year.

Keep visiting this blog and www.theitest.com to stay current on iTest news as we approach the 2007 iTest launch.

The Draper Richards Foundation

2007-06-19T16:42:00.001-05:00

The iTest typically doesn’t comment on funding proposals that are outstanding or pending review. However, this will be one exception.

The Draper Richards Foundation, which is a group that funds early-stage non-profit organizations, is a foundation currently considering an iTest proposal for funding. While the iTest would be a great fit for them, even if they decide to go another direction and not fund us, what they do is really neat and worthy of attention. Many non-profits out there are in need of this type of funding and already this foundation has helped several take that next step toward becoming sustainable organizations. Have a look yourself – their homepage is here.