What is PAMO?
PAMO is the Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad, a prestigious annual mathematics competition for African youth. Each year it is hosted by a different African country. In 2024, it will be hosted by South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg .
Who can take part in PAMO?
All countries in Africa are allowed to take part in PAMO. Each country may send a national team made up of at most 3 girls and at most 3 boys.
All contestants should not be enrolled at a tertiary (university) institution. All contestants should be less than 20 years old on Friday August 16th 2024.
The team leader must be a mathematics teacher at the secondary or tertiary level or have significant mathematics background, such as being a university student with multiple olympiad participations.
Each contestant must be less than twenty (20) years old on the day of the second examination paper.
What are the languages of PAMO?
The languages of PAMO are English or French. All team members need a working knowledge of at least one of these. The paper is available in English or French. And solutions need to be written in English or French.
What do contestants do? How is the winner decided?
There will be 2 days of exams, 15th & 16th of August. All contestants will sit these exams, each of 4.5 hours length. The exams require problem solving skills, and the questions are very difficult. Each question is worth 7 marks, and each day there are 3 questions. The total number of points is thus 42.
Medals for PAMO contestants: Gold Medals, Silver Medals and Bronze Medals will be awarded in approximately the ratio 1:2:3; the exact total point thresholds for each kind of medal will be decided by the Jury. The total number of medals awarded will not be more than half of the number of official contestants.
The top ranking femalecontestant by total number of points will be crowned “African Mathematics Queen 2024”
Countries will be ranked by taking the sum of the total scores of all their team members. The team leaders of the top three countries will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals.
Why should a country take part?
PAMO is a chance for countries to showcase the mathematical talent of their students. For contestants, it motivates them to improve, and doing well at PAMO is a well recognised achievement that will help them to apply to universities etc.
In addition, attending an international competition will expand their horizons, and foster a strong sense of Pan-Africanism, one of the core values of AIMS.
Mathematical Olympiads are like the Olympics for mathematics, and many countries have intensive training programs in order to do well. Taking part in PAMO can be the first step towards taking part in the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO), the most prestigious mathematics competition in the world.
Can I attend online?
Many countries struggle to finance the cost of flights, and cannot consistently attend PAMO. This reduces their ability to attract funding and motivate pupils, thus reducing their likelihood of further participation. We suggest that countries should be allowed to attend PAMO remotely, under stringent exam conditions, similar to PAMO 2020 & IMO 2020 (which took place remotely in 2021 due to the covid pandemic). This will help them to build their team and attract funding.
Note that attending online should be the last option for teams, as attending a prestigious international event such as PAMO brings great benefits to pupils, and the importance of attending in person cannot be overstated.
Please check the document below for more information.
How are problems selected?
- Submission of problems:
- Every member of AMUPAMOC is required to propose at least three problems each of 1 hour 30 minutes duration with solutions for the Olympiad.
- Each country taking part in the Olympiad is required to submit at least three problems of 1 hour 30 minutes duration with solutions for the Olympiad.
- Each problem submission must contain two separate files: one with only the problem statement, and another with the problems statement with solution.
- The problems must cover, as far as possible, different areas of Algebra, Geometry, Combinatorics, and Number theory and should be of different levels of difficulty. The problems must be submitted in English or in French.
How does marking work?
- The AMUPAMOC in agreement with the PAMO 2024 LOC will appoint a team of six Problem Captains and other coordinators who will meet with the Jury when the final selection of six problems has been made and the marking schemes are drawn up.
- Each problem will be awarded a mark (a whole number between 0 and 7 inclusive) in the following manner:
- The solutions of the contestants will initially be assessed by their team leader.
- The team leader will present the solutions of the contestants to a coordinator, and a final score for each question will be agreed upon in accordance with the marking scheme.
- The scores will be recorded on an official form and signed by the team leader and the coordinator.
- If the team leader and the coordinator fail to agree on a score for a contestant, the matter will be referred to the Problem Captain.
- If the team leader and the Problem Captain fail to agree on a score for a contestant, the matter will be referred to the Supervising Committee whose decision shall be final.
- No country’s scripts should be marked by coordinators from that country, except for cases where it is unavoidable.
- Each problem will be awarded a mark (a whole number between 0 and 7 inclusive) in the following manner: