NACLO Rules (2008)

General

Open Round (February 5, 2008): The first round is open to all interested middle-school and high-school students; its purpose is to identify the strong contestants who advance to the second round. The judges expect that about one hundred contestants will advance to the Invitational Round.

Invitational Round (March 11, 2008): The second round is for the contestants who have advanced from the first round, and the problems at this competition are harder than the Open-Round problems. The purpose is to select national winners, who will be eligible to participate in the international competition.

Problems and solutions

• The Open Round is three hours long, whereas the Invitational Round is five hours long. The judges have the authority to lengthen either competition in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
• You should submit all your solutions in writing, using a black nonerasable pen, and you should ensure that your handwriting is legible. The use of a black pen is essential to ensure legible photocopying or scanning of your solutions, which may be done to streamline the grading process.
• You should write your name and registration number on each page of the booklet, and you should write your solutions in the appropriate spaces, provided in the booklet; the judges will grade only legible solutions in the provided spaces.
• You may solve the given problems in any order, and you should try to solve as many problems as possible. Every problem includes "practice" and "theory" questions; the practice parts are worth about 60% of the score, and the theory parts are worth about 40%. You may receive partial credit for providing an incomplete solution to a problem, or specific ideas for solving it. Thus, if you have ideas for solving a problem, you should write them even if you have not been able to develop a complete solution.

Allowed and disallowed materials

• On-site participants: You may bring your own supply of blank paper, pens, and pencils. The facilitators will provide unlimited supply of paper and pens during the contest.
• Remote participants: You should bring your own black pen, and you may also bring blank paper, additional pens, and pencils.
• You should write your solutions in black ink, and you may use pencils only for scratch work. You may use blank paper for scratch work; however, you should copy your final solutions into the spaces provided in the problem booklet.
• You may not use any electronic devices except basic wristwatches. In particular, you may not use calculators, computers, palm pilots, cell phones, pagers, or wristwatches with built-in calculators. Attempts to use electronic devices will normally lead to disqualification. If you have any medical electronic devices, required for health reasons, you should discuss it with facilitators before the contest.
• You may not use any written or printed materials, such as books or your own notes produced before the contest.

Conduct during the contest

• You should follow all instructions of the facilitators; if you have questions about the rules or conduct during the contest, raise your hand and ask a facilitator.
• You may not talk with anyone except facilitators, and you may not collaborate with other contestants. Attempts to communicate with other contestants will normally lead to disqualification.
• If you have a bag, you should place it under your seat before the contest, and you may not access it during the contest. If you need to leave the room temporarily during the contest, you may not take your bag with you. Thus, you should get all required materials from your bag before the contest.
• If you have a cell phone, pager, or any other sound-emitting device in your bag, you should turn it off completely; note that switching it to the silent mode is insufficient.
• You may take bathroom breaks during the contest; however, you may not take your bag, any electronic devices, problem booklets, or your notes with you when temporarily leaving the room. Also, two contestants may not take a bathroom break at the same time.
• You may bring a snack into the contest site and eat during the contest, but you should be considerate of others. In particular, you should avoid "noisy" foods, such as foil-wrapped chocolates, and foods with a strong smell. The facilitators have the authority to remove any types of food from the contest site if they feel that these types of food may distract other contestants.
• If you arrive late, you may still participate in the contest; however, you may not ask facilitators to repeat any instructions or announcements that you have missed. Also, you may not ask for time extension in the end of the contest, which means that you will have less time than the other contestants.

Questions during the contest

• If you have a question, please raise your hand, and one of the facilitators will talk with you. When talking with a facilitator, you should keep your voice low, to make sure that you do not distract other contestants and do not accidentally provide a hint for solving the problem.
• If you need a clarification for a specific problem, the facilitator will need to contact the judges via email, which means that you may not get an immediate answer; please note that local facilitators are unable to answer your questions without contacting the judges. If the judges agree that the problem requires a clarification or correction, they will normally announce it to all contestants.
• If the facilitator or judges feel that the answer is already contained in the booklet, or that your question relates to a solution, they may refuse to answer it.

Scoring

• Every problem will be worth a specified number of points; harder problems are generally worth more points.
• The judges will score each solution based on its correctness, quality, and clarity, and determine your overall score as the sum of solution scores; see the NACLO scoring page for more details. They will complete the scoring and announce the results within three weeks after the competition.
• The judges are solely responsible for scoring the solutions, ruling on unforeseen situations, and selecting the winners; their decisions are final.

Special needs