Previous Years' Tests

Alabama Statewide Mathematics Contest
Previous Years' Tests


Written Tests (Algebra, Geometry, and Comprehensive):

There are three ways to obtain written tests from previous years:
  1. Each year beginning in 1981 (except 1985, 1998, and 1999), one of the written tests appears in either the Spring or Fall issue of the Alabama Journal of Mathematics with answers and comments by the author.
  2. Hard copies of written tests dating back to 1998 are available by request, free of charge, at any time. Simply contact the contest director (see below; email preferred) with your full mailing address and, if you are a teacher, the division number of your school (One, Two, or Three; see the contest brochure for definitions).
  3. Beginning with the 1999 contest, we will archive these tests, with answers, below. They are posted as "pdf" files. In order to read them, you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't already have this reader, you can download it here:

    DOWNLOAD ADOBE ACROBAT READER

We have been forced to use a rather crude method for posting the 1999 - 2000 written tests; we optically scanned them and then converted the resulting images to pdf format. Because this method produces rather large files, each page of each test is posted as a separate file. Unless you have a good, fast internet connection and a reasonably fast computer, it might be awkward and tedious to view these tests online. But we hope that, with a little patience, you will be able to print copies of these tests.

These copies will not look nearly as good as the originals, but they should be legible. If you notice spots on any of the pages which are not legible, please let us know. (We can try to scan such pages again.) You will probably have better looking results if, when you have a page open in Adobe Acrobat, you go to "Print Setup", then "Properties", and adjust your printer settings to be optimal for scanned images and/or to render graphics in general with maximum fineness. It also seems to help to adjust the intensity (darkness) to be substantially darker than the default intensity. Experimenting a bit with one page can really pay off. (For example, I found that on my HP Laser Printer, I see much better results if under "Graphics" I adjust the Dithering to "fine" and adjust the Intensity to be substantially darker than the default setting.)

PDF FILES FOR THE 1999 WRITTEN TESTS
Erratum: On the Division One Comprehensive Test question number 42, the equation of the tangent line should read "x + By + Cz + D = 0", in which case the answer would be (B).

PDF FILES FOR THE 2000 WRITTEN TESTS
Errata: The Geometry Test as originally administered had three questions mentioning shaded regions in accompanying diagrams. Due to a printing problem, the shading did not show up on any of these diagrams! However, the test posted here was scanned from our original with the shading clearly visible. The answer key indicates an X for these problems since they were thrown out in the scoring, but also indicates the correct answers with the shading. On the Algebra Test, question number 50 has a trivial solution (a = b = c > 0, yielding a common difference of 0) which we failed to eliminate in the wording of the problem. The only possible nontrivial common difference is 3/2 (answer (E)), but it takes some doing to show this; it is a very hard problem. Finally, the question appearing on all three versions of the Comprehensive Test regarding spheres inscribed in and circumscribed about a cube did not include the correct answer, which is 3 Ö3.

On the other hand, the more recent written tests are available as nice pdf files (text and equations, not scanned images) which should view and print quickly and be of publication quality:

PDF FILE FOR THE COVERS OF THE 2001 WRITTEN COMPREHENSIVE TESTS
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION I 2001 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION II 2001 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION III 2001 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2001 ALGEBRA WITH TRIGONOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2001 GEOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE ANSWERS TO THE 2001 WRITTEN TESTS
Errata: On the Geometry Test, problem number 10, the units in the answers were incorrectly given as cm^2 when they should be cm^3; the answer is then (B). On the Algebra Test, problem number 46, the wording should have been changed to indicate (say) that the integers lie between 75 and 85 since the integers turn out to be 80 and 82. A better version of the problem appears on the Comprehensive Tests (number 42 on the Division One test, which is also number 45 on the Division Two and Division Three Comprehensive Tests). On the Division One Comprehensive Test problem number 30, which is also number 28 on the Division Two Comprehensive Test, the sample space was just a bit ambiguous and should have been phrased to make it clear that 2222 and 6666 are permissible. (See number 47 on the Algebra Test for such a wording.)

PDF FILE FOR THE COVERS OF THE 2002 WRITTEN COMPREHENSIVE TESTS
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION I 2002 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION II 2002 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION III 2002 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2002 ALGEBRA WITH TRIGONOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2002 GEOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE ANSWERS TO THE 2002 WRITTEN TESTS
Errata: The Geometry Test as originally administered had the wrong diagram on problem number 1. We included the correct diagram in the version posted here; the answer is (B), as is indicated on the answer key. Also, number 12 on the Geometry Test does not include the correct answer, though if you read 3 feet for 3 inches in the problem, (C) is the answer! On number 22 of the Division Two Comprehensive Test, which is also number 25 of the Division Three Comprehensive Test, the correct answer of -9 - 46i does not appear.

PDF FILE FOR THE COVERS OF THE 2003 WRITTEN COMPREHENSIVE TESTS
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION I 2003 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION II 2003 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE DIVISION III 2003 COMPREHENSIVE WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2003 ALGEBRA WITH TRIGONOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE 2003 GEOMETRY WRITTEN TEST
PDF FILE FOR THE ANSWERS TO THE 2003 WRITTEN TESTS
Errata: On #4 of all three versions of the Comprehensive Test, there was a typo in answer (e): "a^4 + a^4" should read "a^4 + b^4" and the intended answer was (D). And #49 of the Geometry Test is a very nice question, but unfortunately nothing even approaching the correct answer appears among the answer choices! There are actually 4 such circles in the given setup, regardless of the position of the circle and lines.

Ciphering Tournament Questions:

Since the 2000 Contest we have been archiving our ciphering questions here in ``pdf'' format. These are nice pdf files (text and equations, not scanned images) which should view and print quickly and be of publication quality. (See above if you need to download the free reader for this file format.) Each of the following pdf files contains all of the ciphering questions from the indicated year. The cover page for each year is given separately.

PDF FILE FOR THE COVER PAGE OF THE 2000 CIPHERING QUESTIONS
PDF FILE FOR THE 2000 CIPHERING QUESTIONS
Erratum: In Round 4, Division One, Algebra Question 2, the question should read: "If k is the smallest positive integer which will make ..." (Then the answer given is correct.)

PDF FILE FOR THE COVER PAGE OF THE 2001 CIPHERING QUESTIONS
PDF FILE FOR THE 2001 CIPHERING QUESTIONS

PDF FILE FOR THE COVER PAGE OF THE 2002 CIPHERING QUESTIONS
PDF FILE FOR THE 2002 CIPHERING QUESTIONS

PDF FILE FOR THE COVER PAGE OF THE 2003 CIPHERING QUESTIONS
PDF FILE FOR THE 2003 CIPHERING QUESTIONS

Ciphering Questions are also available in these ways:
If you have problems downloading satisfactory copies of these tests, please let the author of this page know about the problem.


Revised - February 4, 2004

Questions, comments, and suggestions about the contest and about this site are welcome.
Please contact:

Jeff Dodd
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematical, Computing, and Information Sciences
Jacksonville State University
Jacksonville, AL 36265
phone: 256-782-5112
fax: 256-782-5261
email: jdodd@jsucc.jsu.edu


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