Fall 2025 MATH MADNESS DETAILS
100% Online, beginning as a joint initiative between American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) and AreteLabs, and entering its 13th season, Math Madness is a team-based math competition event held yearly in the United States. In 2024-25, approximately 1000 teams and 15,000 students from across the country competed in one of our 3 Math Madness offerings: Math Madness (our main event held in the fall), Mini-Madness (just 5-6 weeks of friendly scrimmaging held mid-Feb through March), and the Math Madness Re-Run (full replay of the fall event held mid-Feb through April). All are offered at 3 levels: high school (9th-12th), middle school (6th-8th), and elementary school (3rd-5th). A team may consist of students from different grade levels within the defined grade span. A minimum of 5 students is required to play but there is no maximum team size.
The Math Madness event is divided into 1 practice round, 4 league/scrimmage rounds, and 6 bracket tournament rounds. Teams may register through Qualifying Round II but cannot make up any missed round. Teams which register prior to the practice round are guaranteed 10 rounds of competition. However, teams are NOT required to play in all rounds. Instead, they may opt in or out from round to round as they wish throughout the season, subject to the requirement that a team must play its bracket round matches if it wishes to advance in the tournament. The full schedule is as follows:
Sep 21 - 27: Practice Round
Sep 28 - Oct 4: Collaboration Round I
Oct 5 - 11: Collaboration Round II
Oct 12 - 18: Qualifying Round I (Students play independently but as a team)
Oct 19 - 25: Qualifying Round II (LAST WEEK TO REGISTER!!!)
Oct 26 - Nov 1: Bracket Round I (Single Elimination Tournament Begins - ALL teams are assigned to one of a series of brackets)
Nov 2 - 8: Bracket Round II
Nov 9 - 15: Bracket Round III (Teams which lost in Bracket Round I can resume playing in informal, "Opt-in" matches)
Nov 16 - 22: Bracket Round IV (Teams which lost in Bracket Round II can resume playing in informal, "Opt-in" matches, and so on)
Nov 23 - 29: Thanksgiving week is OFF
Nov 30 - Dec 6 Bracket Round V
Dec 7 - 13: Championship Round
All teacher and student users are given their own online account on the aretelabs.com platform. The teacher activates his/her own account first and then creates a team, adding all student members to it. For the majority of the event, students compete individually (from inside their own account) but as part of a team.
The system arranges all matches for all rounds. Each match involves 2 teams and each round lasts 1 week. All matches are 30 minutes in length. A team can compete at any time during a given round, with all rounds commencing Sunday morning and concluding Saturday evening. All players on a team must play at the day/time selected by the teacher - a student cannot make up a missed match later in the round. Teachers can change the time for their team to play during the round and from round to round, as well as the team's composition. Teachers may also opt out of almost any round in which their team cannot play. Indeed, maximum scheduling flexibility and minimal teacher time/energy commitment are the hallmarks of this event. In fact, the only 2 responsibilities of a teacher throughout the entire season are to add students to the team and choose the time to play each round.
If the day/time for a team to play is the same as its opponent's, the match is live with both team scores updating in real time on the student's scoreboard. If teams cannot find a common time to compete, then each team plays at the time convenient for it, with final results posting after both teams have played. The student's individual score always updates in real time as questions are answered correctly. This patented, live scoring framework thrills students and distinguishes this event from all other competition activities currently available.
Each match includes 7-8 multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Team score is calculated by summing the top 5 individual scores. Content at the high school level is primarily aligned with AMC 10/12, at the middle school level with AMC 8, and at the elementary level with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As the season progresses, rankings of the top 50% of individuals and teams are published to highlight achievement and to help members of the greater community measure their own effort and progress.
The opening four rounds are divided into 2 Collaboration rounds and 2 Qualifying rounds. During the former, students can work together in mini-teams. During the latter (and for the remainder of the event), students play individually. Teams are matched first by skill level so that the competition is even and then by common time availability so that teams can play live where possible. Data from the 2 Qualifying rounds are used to determine bracket assignments. The top 64 teams are assigned to the Title bracket. Remaining teams are then evenly placed in additional brackets based on team size, with all teams competing in a bracket. Within each bracket, teams are sorted by skill and seeded accordingly, following NCAA March Madness protocol.
Those teams that are eliminated from a bracket can nonetheless extend their season by opting in to play against other similarly situated teams in weekly matches automatically arranged by the system. Thus, all teams can play a full 10-round season if they choose.In addition, a teacher can separately challenge another team to a match or divide his/her team into multiple teams that play against each other with our ClassMatch functionality (see heading at the top of this page). Content from past seasons is made available to fuel such additional competition activity. With a Math Madness subscription, a ClassMatch subscription is discounted to $42.50.
To participate, a teacher must (1) activate a free account (click here), (2) create a team once inside the account by clicking the "+Team" button, and then (3) register that team on the Events page, selecting "High", "Middle" or "Elementary" depending on the team's level. Payment is NOT required up front. Instead, an invoice will appear for download on the Events page once registration is complete. Schools are given 2 months from the date of registration to make payment, a time period which can be easily extended. A teacher may register multiple teams for Math Madness from the same account. However, the same team cannot compete in two separate levels of Math Madness. Upon request, Math Madness content from years prior can be sent so that a teacher can review content appropriateness. Students or parents may NOT register a team for Math Madness. Occasionally an exception to this rule is merited but approval must be granted first.
Once registered, teachers should review the Rules/Instructions for Math Madness in more detail by clicking "Math Madness" in the dropdown at the top/right of their account and then selecting the "About" tab on that page, or visit https://www.aretelabs.com/math_madness directly.
Payment by check is politely requested although a credit card purchase through Paypal can be arranged if there is no alternative. Venmo and Zelle are encouraged if a school wishes to pay online. In the pricing area below, a player is defined as an individual student who competes at least once during the event. Prices listed below are for the entire team to play for the entire season. A team should consist only of students from the same school (exceptions to this may be made, limitations apply). Price accommodation is available upon request and as needed. Please do not hesitate to send an email to timothy@aretelabs.com with any questions or call 312-952-0436. Make sure to click the "Video Tutorial" button at the top/right of this page to review registration steps for our online math competition events!
Thank you and welcome to the Madness!!! . . .
