Exam Instructions — UH Math Contest 2025

• read these instuctions upon registration,
• refer to these instructions again when watching the contest demonstration video and while performing the practice contest, and
• check this page on February 7 (the day before the contest) for any additional updates.

Enrollment Rules

Instructions for Exams Given with the Autopresenter

Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, Calculus, Statistics, Physics, and Calculation

• To access each contest, visit your Courseware account at https://casa.uh.edu, click on the Courses tab, and click on the link for the desired subject; this will place you on the course homepage for that contest. On the night before the contest, a contest link will appear at the top of that page which is specific to your account. Once available, you can open that contest link at any time, but you MUST refresh the contest page within 5 minutes of the contest start time or you will miss the contest exam. (Within those final five minutes, you will see a countdown timer on the left side of the screen as shown in our contest demonstration video.)
• The entire exam is to be viewed and taken on one device. You can use a desktop with a monitor, a laptop, or a tablet. Although a phone can be used, the problems will be small and you may need to do quite a bit of scrolling to view the entire screen.
• There is a time limit listed for each question along with a countdown timer bar. Answers selected after time has expired will not be accepted.
• It is OK to refresh the page before the contest begins, but you should not refresh the page after the contest begins unless you experience technical difficulties. You should not hit the back button on your browser, and it is not possible to go back to a problem or change your answer once the time for a problem has expired. (If you experience technical difficulties during the contest, you can click on your exam link again or refresh the page. All previously selected answers will have been saved, and you will return to whatever problem is being presented at that time.)
• You may need to scroll down or scroll to the right to see the entirety of each page. Be sure to look for the letter answer input buttons below each question.
• Prior to contest day, students should watch the contest demonstration video and take the practice contest to familiarize themselves with the format and to make sure that they can view all of the content on each page.
• Since monitors/laptops/tablets have different screen resolutions, you may need to zoom in on your contest page to see images more clearly, or zoom out to see more of the page at once. (Experiment with this using the practice contest to determine zoom settings that work well on your device.
  
  On a laptop or desktop:
  To zoom in: Press CTRL (Cmd for Mac) and then “+” (plus).
  To zoom out: Press CTRL (Cmd for Mac) and then “-” (minus).
  To reset the zoom level: Press CTRL (Cmd for Mac) and "0" (zero).
  
  On an iPad, other tablet, or smartphone:
  To zoom in: Pinch fingers away from each other
  To zoom out: Pinch fingers toward each other.
  
• There is a pause between the end of a question and the start of the next question, during which you can view your current score, view the top 10 scores, and display your previously entered letter answers. A countdown timer appears during the pause.
• Winners are determined by the number of questions that they answer correctly. If any students in 1st-6th place are tied in regard to the number of correct answers, the total time taken to submit correct answers will be used to break ties. You should therefore try to answer questions quickly.
• There is no penalty for guessing.
• Most contest exams will contain between 35-50 questions, depending on the length of each question. We are crafting the exams so that each one lasts 50 minutes or less (including the time that it takes to answer the last question).

Course-Specific Instructions

• Statistics:
  Links to a Z-table, T table, and chi square table are provided in the Courses page for this exam at https://casa.uh.edu.
• Calculation:
  Unless otherwise requested, select an answer that is closest to the exact answer.
• Geometry:
  Diagrams may not be drawn to scale.
• Physics - Notice the value of g.
  

Instructions for Number Sense

Instructions for SmackDown

• students view the competition through the contest Zoom Room (the link for the Zoom Room will be posted in your Courseware account and on our contest website), and
• students access their SmackDown answer sheet through their Courseware account. Click on the Courses tab, choose the SmackDown course, and then click on the individual link that can be found at the top of your SmackDown course home page. (This individual link will appear on the SmackDown course page the night before the contest. You can click on it prior to the contest, but it will not begin registering answers until the actual contest time.)