Policy on Getting Help on the Qualifying Quiz

Our application is designed to help us get to know YOU, both mathematically and as a person. The Qualifying Quiz is where we see you doing math, and the About You and Math Background sections are where we get to know more about your experiences inside and outside of math. Here is our policy on getting help on the Qualifying Quiz. (Read about getting help on the other sections here.)

Our policy treats all external resources in the same way and consists of two simple principles.

1. You cannot get external resources to do any of the math for you.

"External resources" includes everything: other people, forums, help sites, tutors, paid or free services, websites, AI tools. "Doing the math" includes all parts of the solution process: understanding the problem, coming up with ideas, finding solutions, writing and then checking solutions — all of these steps need to be yours. We work very hard to ensure that the Quiz problems are within your reach, even if you don't reach a final perfect solution. (Among the many hundreds of applications we get every year, almost nobody solves all the problems perfectly — that isn't the point.) So don't ask ChatGPT, don't ask a friend, don't ask a teacher, don't ask an internet forum, and absolutely don't ask "homework help" sites like Chegg to solve them for you. And don't show anyone your Quiz solutions until the application deadline has passed. If someone else uses ideas from your solution to cheat, we will hold both of you responsible.

2. You can use external resources to help you find and learn helpful material.

The Quiz is a great opportunity for you to learn some new ideas! Use static resources like textbooks, Wikipedia, YouTube, and other reference materials that a person would use to learn about math. (And yes, you'll use the internet to find these!) Use dynamic resources like other humans and ChatGPT to help you learn background material, as long as you do not use them to find, write, or check solutions to the QQ problems. (Include a reference in your solutions to every external source that you use.) Here are more examples of resources and ways you can use them:

• Use computer algebra systems like Wolfram Alpha to help you work out examples.
• Write code as part of your solving process. (But you don't need to; coding is not an expected prerequisite for applying to Mathcamp.) Read more about Programming and the Qualifying Quiz.
• Use reference libraries like OEIS to look things up or just explore.

Remember to keep track of the resources you use on each problem, as that list will be part of your submission!

Example

Consider this problem (Problem 1 from the 2025 Quiz):

A number is a palindrome if it reads the same backwards and forwards. For instance, 14541 is a palindrome, whereas 321 and 6560 are not. (Note that you can't write 6560 as 06560 to make it into a palindrome: zero is not a valid leading digit.)

Is it possible to write 2025 as a ratio of two palindromes? What about 2026?

When investigating this problem, you should not use an external resource to investigate:

• Is it possible to write 2025 as a ratio of two palindromes?
• Which numbers can be written as a ratio of two palindromes?
• Is it possible to write 100 as a ratio of two palindromes?
• What is an example of a number that cannot be written as a ratio of two palindromes?

Suppose that while thinking about the problem, you decide you want to learn more about arithmetic in different bases, to try to understand what might be special about base ten. Then you could ask a resource, for instance, about the differences between arithmetic in different bases. However, suppose that you use what you learn to translate the original problem into some seemingly-unrelated problem about arithmetic. You cannot then ask external resources about that other problem—solving it has become a mathematical step in your solution to the original problem.

You could also use resources to help you find other references (papers, articles, encyclopedia entries) that already exist on the internet, for instance asking an AI tool or another human if they know of any interesting papers on palindromes. You should not ask AI tools or other humans to generate new ideas, but only to point you to existing ones or to answer questions about background. What marks the line between those two uses? Ask yourself: am I asking this to do some of the math for me? To make a bit of progress on the problem for me? If it feels like a yes, then don't do it. As with all things in life, you will have to use your judgment. If you aren't sure, you can always ask us.

What the application asks for

Mathcamp is a community based on mutual trust and respect, and plagiarism and cheating are serious violations of that core ethos. In accordance with this policy, when you submit your solutions, we will ask you for four things:

1. we'll ask you to confirm that your Qualifying Quiz solutions are entirely your own work;
2. we'll ask for your solution files, of course;
3. we'll ask for all your scratchwork for each problem, which we strongly encourage you to upload as you go (read more here);
4. and we'll ask you for a list of resources that you used for each problem along with a description of how you used each one, e.g., 'asked my math teacher to give an overview of modular arithmetic' or 'asked ChatGPT to find me material on symmetry groups.'

Violating this policy on the Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz will automatically disqualify you from attending Mathcamp not only this year, but in all future years. (See also the revocation policy.) Don't do it! And if you happen to get lucky and don't get caught cheating? Well, then for your whole summer at Mathcamp, you will be lying. You will never know if you would have gotten in anyway. Mathcamp has been around for over 30 years; we know from experience that you will have an awful summer — it's just not worth it.