Nationwide online Mathematics competition, Mathlete is getting immense response throughout the country as citizens rush to win prizes worth thousands. The concept revolves around challenging the mathematical intelligence of contestants and rewarding the winners with prizes. Participants win prizes purely on the basis of their ability to correctly answer maximum number of mathematical questions in the shortest possible time.
Winners are selected through a ranking system which awards points to competing players based on the number of correct answers and time taken to answer each question. Citizens, primarily the students, are participating from more than 135 cities around the country.
It is a project of Future Biz Technologies in collaboration with Association for Academic Quality (AFAQ). Talking to Pakistan Today, Future Biz Technologies Chief Executive Officer Nadeem Chaudhary said it was an attempt to boost the level of mathematical skills of students. Highlighting the objectives of the competition, Nadeem believed that there was a dire need to strengthen Mathematical intuition.
Talking about the format, he said there were five contestant levels including level 1: 7 to 11 years, level 2: 12 to 14 years; level 3: 15 to 16 years, level 4: 17-24 years and level 5 for 24+ citizens. There is a Rs 100,000 prize for winners of each level, Rs 50,000 for the runner up and Rs 25,000 for the third position.
Mathlete Project Director Abdus Samd stressed the need of effective mathematical education in the country. He said Mathlete team had been observing the weaknesses of students which could be used to improve mathematics teaching in future. He asked the media to highlight the importance of mathematics and technological education as Mathemetics and Technology were a gateway to development of any country. He said Mathlete would play a part in promoting mathematics, even in remote areas of the country. Responding on the transparency of the event, he said the first phase was online and if anybody cheated, it would automatically be exposed in the second phase on ground screening followed by the grand finale.
AFAQ Marketing Manager Abdus Samd Qureshi said response to Mathlete had been tremendous. He said students from all parts of the country were participating in the event. Qureshi said the contest was giving a chance to students of the remote areas to improve Mathematics while participating in a competition.
The quiz comprises of number sense, algebra, geometry, and statistics questions. The last date for online phase is July 17 however, it may be extended if need arises.
Each Quiz has 25 multiple-choice questions having four answer options. Each question must be answered within a time limit of 90 seconds. If no answer option is selected within 90 seconds it will be considered a wrong answer and next question will be loaded automatically. As far as scoring system is concerned each quiz has maximum 10 points. Scoring is time based and more quickly a player selects correct option more scoring points are awarded. There is zero score for a wrong answer.
Students taking part in the competition hailed the efforts of mathlete team and said that it was creating interest for mathematics among the students. They also hoped the exercise would improve their math skills and reap rewards in the near future. Engineering students said the competition would enable them to improve their basic math skills. They also appreciated the user friendly Mathlete website.
The Mathlete team was of the view that everybody could afford to participate in the competition. They also said that this competition was specially designed for the underprivileged students of the country who could easily use the scratch card method. The Mathlete website also displays the highest scorers for each level, keeping the online stage interesting and competitive.
