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Announcement of the 35th Annual Gold Exam - 2008

DATE FOR 2008 - TUESDAY - MARCH 11, 2008
(snow-makeup - if postponed) March 14, 2008 (Friday)

The May 2, rescheduled John Gold was a tremendous success. With 22 schools competing and 91 students.

The Professor John Steiner Gold Mathematical Competition is sponsored by Bucknell University and the Pennsylvania Beta Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, the national honorary mathematics society, in memory of the late Professor John Steiner Gold. Professor Gold, a native of Turbotville, taught at several area high schools before joining the faculty at Bucknell, where he served with distinction for nearly half a century. In the spirit of his life-long work, this competition was established to discover and to encourage mathematical talent and to give public recognition to those who achieve in mathematics.

The competition is open to all area high schools, public and private. Each school may enter up to three students, who will compete for both team and individual prizes. The winning teams are awarded prizes, as well as the individual participants. A school entering fewer than three students can still compete as a team although it is more difficult to win the team competition. As everyone also competes individually, even students without a full team should be encouraged to participate.

The competition will be in the form of a written examination. Next year it will be given on Tuesday morning, March 11. Registration at 9:30 and the exam from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in Vaughan Literature Building.  If possible, please try to arrive by 9:00.  We are offering the option of electronic registration.

The examination will not presuppose any knowledge of mathematics beyond the usual high school curriculum. However, it includes non-routine and stimulating problems which are intended to foster both creativity and interest in mathematics. Copies of previous examinations are available upon request to help the schools select and prepare participants. Instructors may also help their students prepare by having them consider topics in their textbooks that are sometimes omitted from class work, e.g., sequences, arithmetic, and geometric progressions, permutations and combinations, and elementary probability. Instructors who actively encourage and prepare a group of students for participation will find the competition a worthwhile and rewarding cocurricular activity.

A map and directions are available on line, as well as samples of past Gold Exams. Sample 1  and Sample 2

• For further information contact:
  • Polly Doyle
    TEL. (570) 577-1343
    e-mail: math@bucknell.edu
    Snail mail:
    Department of Mathematics
    Bucknell University
    Lewisburg, PA 17837