ELMACON takes place over one day, usually a Saturday in late April or Early May. The contest consists of three exams, two written papers and a head-to-head verbal round in the afternoon. The students are split according to their grade level (grade 5, 6 or 7) and all students take place in the first two rounds (the sprint and the target). The top scorers proceed to the Countdown round in the afternoon to determine the ultimate winners!
Each student gets a certificate for participating, and the top twenty five students get special recognition on the day. The top ten finalists each get a medal and the top 3 will get trophies and their choice of a prize.
Sprint Round
The Sprint Round is the first exam in the contest. It is a written exam with 26 questions spread over 3 pages. Students have 50 minutes to answer as many of them as they can
- Each question is worth one point.
- Some questions are easy and some are hard so plan accordingly!. In general the questions get harder as you go on.
- ELMACON is hard! A total score of around 50% usually means you are doing well.
- Only students are allowed in the room during the exam.
- No calculators or scrap paper is allowed. You can write on the back of each page if you need space to work things out.
- Write your answer clearly in the space provided. Only your answer is marked (your workings aren't marked).
After the sprint round there is a short break, then it's time for the Target Round...
Target Round
The Target round is the second written exam. There are 12 questions in the Target, and each question is worth two points. The questions are split over three coloured pages and students have 15 minutes to work on each page
- The MC will tell you to begin with the first page. You are only allowed to work on that page for the first 15 minuets.
- After 15 minutes, you'll be told to turn to the second page. Again you'll have 15 minutes to work on that page
- Finally, you'll be told to turn to the last page where you have another 15 minutes to finish the exam.
- Only students are allowed in the room during the exam.
- No calculators or scrap paper is allowed. You can write in the black spaces around the questions if you need space to work things out, but you can't turn to another page.
- Write your answer clearly in the space provided. Only your answer is marked (your workings aren't marked).
When the exam is over, you'll be let out of the room to meet your parent/guardian and you can go to lunch (Parents please note, you should arrange to meet your child at this time, students are not supervised outside of the exam rooms). The exams will be marked while you are at lunch. After lunch you'll head back to your exam rooms, where the MC will read out the top competitors for the Countdown!
Countdown!
The countdown is the last and most exciting round of the competition. It is a quick fire head-to-head verbal shootout where students buzz in to determine the final ELMACON winners! Everyone is welcome to attend the Countdown to cheer on the competitors.
- All competitors will get a certificate for their hard work, and the top 25 competitors in each grade will be read out and given special certificates.
- The top 10 competitors from the Sprint and Target round are invited to take part in the countdown.
- Competitors are invited down to a desk at the front of the room with buzzers, pencil and paper and a projector screen.
- The MC will read out and display problems on the projector screen. The students have 60 seconds for each question to buzz in and try to answer.
- If you buzz in but give the wrong answer, your opponent will have the rest of the 60 seconds to answer.
- The countdown starts with the 10th and 9th place students and the winner is the person who gets the best of three questions.
- The winner in each round stays at the table and faces the next opponent.
- In the last three rounds, the winner is the first person to answer three countdown questions correctly.
The top 10 winners will be given medals, and the top 3 will be given trophies and a prize.