Monday, April 29, 2019

[2019 ARML] - Reminder: Flying to ARML

Dear all,

I'm writing to remind you about the option of flying to ARML, and that the deadline to book those flights is tomorrow night.  I've copied the relevant information from Tim's original email below, particularly for anyone who wasn't on the email list at the time.

Note in particular that the refund (a) only applies to students who take approved flights both ways, and take a Friday morning flight down, and (b) requires that you purchase tickets and forward the airline's confirmation email to arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30th, unless you hear from Tim that the deadline is extended.

If you are going to fly to ARML, please do yourself and us a favor and make your plans now.  Every year, a handful of students change their plans at the last minute, which results in needless waste of money on housing and travel arrangements.  We'd much rather save those costs and pass it on to you via the flight rebate.

--Silas
_____________________________________________

(3) Fly to ARML on approved flights
Students flying to ARML without their parents must travel on one of our approved flights, each of which will have one of our coaches as a chaperone. Chaperones will be in touch with students and their families the week of ARML to coordinate meeting at the airport. Here are the flight options:

SACRAMENTO
Southwest 591, May 31
SMF-LAS, 6:00-7:15am
Southwest 5047, June 1
LAS-SMF, 7:40-9:10pm

OAKLAND
Southwest 1456, May 31
OAK-LAS, 5:30-7:00am
Southwest 5136, June 1
LAS-OAK, 8:00-9:30pm

SAN FRANCISCO 
Southwest 1078, May 31
SFO-LAS, 5:10-6:35am 
Southwest 3308, June 1
LAS-SFO, 6:45-8:20pm

SAN JOSE
Southwest 2063, May 30 (THURSDAY)
SJC-LAS, 10:00-11:15pm 
Southwest 6874, June 1
LAS-SJC, 8:00-9:25pm

For any student who purchases one of the May 31 flights and one of the June 1 flights and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will rebate $100 of the ARML fee you have paid. Please note that the Thursday night flight out of San Jose is currently NOT eligible for the $100 rebate as we are strongly encouraging students to fly in on Friday if they are not taking the bus. Fares are likely to go up as people start buying tickets, so purchase them early if you're planning to fly. Also note that this $100 refund will not necessarily apply to other flights we open up or to purchases made after April 30; if we approve new flights or extend the deadline for claiming refunds I will post details, but DO NOT ask about other Bay Area flights for now.



Sunday, April 28, 2019

[2019 ARML] - Next wave of elite team members

Hi Everyone,

I've got another ten students to announce for the elite teams; I'll place those at the bottom of this email. As usual, all ten of these students are guaranteed a spot on A1 or A2, and we expect final team placements to be ready by next Sunday's practice. For those of you keeping score, this means there are still ten spots left on A1 or A2 that we will announce in about a week. Remember no one is eligible to be placed on one of these teams until we have their registration and payment. I will be at practice today and can collect any checks or permission slips you have to turn in.

In other news, we do not have any financial aid to distribute to team members this year, so those of you who inquired about financial aid will still need to pay the full fee in order to participate. Also, please keep in mind our May 1 deadline for t-shirt design submissions; see my last email for details.

Here are the ten additional students we have selected for A1 or A2:

[redacted]

Friday, April 26, 2019

[2019 ARML] - ARML Local on Sunday + Ice Cream Social!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, April 28, 2pm-6pm, at the College of San Mateo. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/. Note that this is in a neighboring building to the one we met in two weeks ago, not the same building.

We will be participating in ARML Local at this practice. This is an official ARML-style competition written by ARML. Since this is an official contest, please ensure that you arrive on time (and budget some time to park). Additionally, note that this practice is longer than usual in order to ensure that we have sufficient time to complete the contest.

Note: You do not need to be registered for ARML to compete in ARML Local. Even if you can't come to ARML this year, you're still welcome to come to ARML Local. Also feel free to invite any friends who might not be on this email list. :)

Simon will be in charge of assembling teams for the ARML Local competition. For anyone wanting to be placed onto an elite team for ARML Local, you need to check in with Simon at the entrance of Room 18-308 by 2:00pm sharp. People who arrive after team selection is complete will be assigned to teams in the order of when they arrive. Note: these teams are just for ARML Local and have no relation to future team selection for the ARML contest.

This may also be a good time to review the ARML math conventions: http://www.arml2.com/arml_2018/public_documents_all_sites/ARML_Conventions_2014.pdf, including sections about formatting your answers.

We will also have an ice cream social at the end of practice, approximately 5:30pm-6:00pm, and we hope that everyone uses this opportunity to get to know others on the team.

For any parents who are thinking about coming with us to ARML, this practice can be a good opportunity to come help out with some proctoring and see what the experience of volunteering at ARML is like.

As a reminder, if you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the website before that practice, with a good reason. In particular, there is no need to email me about missing a practice, and I do not accept practice excuses over email. Unexcused absences may negatively affect placement on elite teams.

I am posting all materials (problems and solutions) used at practices on the practice website. In order to view this material, use username=sfba and password=arml.

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you on Sunday! :)

Best, 
Moor

-------------------------------------------

Some tips from Freya (selected from her post in our Facebook group):

ARML Local is an official contest; it can be likened to a mini-ARML of sorts. Like the real ARML, ARML Local contains team, individual, and relay rounds (sorry, no power round). However, there are some key differences between ARML Local and ARML, which I will highlight below:

- ARML Local teams contain 6 people, not 15. Thus, the teams tend to be more close-knit and able to interact with one another more closely over individual problems than at the actual ARML. Use this opportunity as a bonding experience; your teammates at ARML Local often end up being on your actual ARML team :) (and if not, this is your chance to meet new friends outside the team as well!).

- Because of the smaller size of the ARML Local teams, the team round contains 15 problems to be solved in 45 minutes rather than 10 problems to be solved in 20 minutes.

- The individual rounds for ARML Local and ARML have the same format; just as in the real ARML, we will read the ARML Local questions aloud before you can start writing (and before the timer starts). We just don't read the questions aloud during other practices in order to save time.

- There are 3 sets of relays in ARML Local: (1) the team splits into 3 groups of 2 to solve 2-question relay sets (submit at 3 and 6 minutes); (2) the team splits into 2 groups of 3 to solve 3-question relay sets (submit at 4 and 8 minutes); and (3) the team as a whole goes through one 6-question relay set (submit at 5 and 10 minutes). Like at the real ARML, the team earns more points for faster submissions.

Now, some tips:

- Teams will not have access to whiteboards at ARML Local. However, one person (the "boardmaster") should use a piece of scratch paper (NOT the official answer sheet!) to keep track of everyone's work and answers for the team round, but everyone can (and should) write on the paper to indicate what they are working on and what answers they get. Just like during ARML, if there is any conflict of answers, it must be brought to everyone's attention immediately.

- When selecting problems at the beginning of the team round, make sure that each person is working on a different problem since there are more problems than students this time around. However, by the end of the team round, every problem attempted should have been solved by at least 2 people.

- If a problem on the team round seems impossible for everyone on the team (even with collaboration), just skip it. Time is of the essence; make sure you correctly solve the problems you can solve.

- Remember that team round answers must be recorded *on the provided answer sheet* to be graded. Thus, at the 1-minute warning, the boardmaster should copy down all answers on that sheet for grading. (If the boardmaster forgets, it is the responsibility of the rest of the team to remind them or copy down the answers themselves.) In addition, have at least one other team member VERIFY that the answers on the answer sheet have been copied down correctly. It'd be a shame to miss problems due to mistranscription!

- Make sure to sanity-check your answers. For example, if a problem asks for an integer mod 45, 100000 or 1/2 will definitely not be correct (it fails the sanity check; the answer should be an integer between 0 and 44).

- Just like at ARML, do NOT submit the same relay answer at the half- and full-time marks. You are only graded based on your latest submission. So, if you submit the same (correct) answer that you submitted earlier, you will cost your team points. Don't do that.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

[2019 ARML] - Additional travel info to/from ARML

Dear ARML students and parents,

For those of you who are new this year, I'm one of the assistant coaches.  You haven't seen me at practices, because I actually live in St. Louis; I first got involved with the team when I was a Stanford student about 10 years ago.  Now that I've moved away, I handle mostly logistics, communication, and planning for the team.  I will be in Las Vegas, though, helping the actual trip run smoothly.

As a result, you'll be hearing from me only occasionally until mid-May, but at that point I'll have lots of information to send you about things like detailed schedules, travel logistics, packing lists, and that sort of thing.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to what's looking like a really exciting ARML season!

For now, I have two brief updates about travel planning, as some of you are starting to book air tickets.

Parent chaperones

If you are a parent interested in serving as a chaperone for the trip, please sign up immediately.  Follow the instructions on the website; there's no commitment yet, I just need to know who's thinking about it.  We'll be finalizing our chaperone roster in the next week or two, so time is of the essence.

If you have already signed up, I'll be in touch with you soon (probably today) with more information.

Dropping students off (and picking up) at ARML

This part is for anyone thinking about travel option #2 in Tim's itinerary, in which your parents drop you off and pick you up in Las Vegas.  As Tim mentioned, we won't know the exact dropoff and pickup location until the week before ARML, although it'll be somewhere on UNLV's campus (it depends on what dorm we're staying in).

However, we do have the dropoff and pickup times worked out.  If you are not traveling to ARML on either the bus or an "official" flight, you must be dropped off and picked up by a parent or legal guardian in one of these time windows.  Do not book air travel that is inconsistent with these times.
Dropoff:
Thursday night: 10:30-11:00 PM
Friday morning: 7:30-8:00 AM (this window is preferred)
Pickup:
Saturday afternoon: At the team meeting, roughly 3:30-4:30 PM (this is preferred, see below)
Sunday morning: 7:30-8:00 AM
We will hold a team meeting on Saturday after the contest is over to celebrate the conclusion of the season and recognize our students and coaches.  This meeting is scheduled for 3:30 and should be done by 4:30.  If you are picking a student up, you should plan to attend this meeting and check your student out afterwards.  If you are not picking a student up but are in Las Vegas, we encourage you to attend the meeting anyway!

That's all for now.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions, particularly about travel logistics.  We'd rather have you ask first than wind up paying change fees for your flights.

--Silas

Saturday, April 20, 2019

[2019 ARML] - ARML update - flights, t-shirts, and elite teams

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few notes you should be aware of. Please read this entire email. You should also have received Moor's email with details about tomorrow's practice; if you didn't see that one, it's on the website.


TRANSPORTATION

We are starting to coordinate transportation for ARML this year, and all students attending ARML will need to get there using one of the following three options:

(1) Ride the bus
This is the default option, and the one most students will use. The bus will leave from San Jose on Thursday morning, May 30, and will return to San Jose on Sunday evening, June 2. If you are planning not to take the bus both ways, you must let us know which of the following two options you plan to use.

(2) Parents bring you to ARML
If your parents are coming to Las Vegas, you may arrange your own transportation with them. If you choose this option, your parents must check you in and/or out at the designated checkpoint at UNLV. We will let you know the week of ARML where and when these checkpoints will be.

(3) Fly to ARML on approved flights
Students flying to ARML without their parents must travel on one of our approved flights, each of which will have one of our coaches as a chaperone. Chaperones will be in touch with students and their families the week of ARML to coordinate meeting at the airport. Here are the flight options:

SACRAMENTO
Southwest 591, May 31
SMF-LAS, 6:00-7:15am
Southwest 5047, June 1
LAS-SMF, 7:40-9:10pm

OAKLAND
Southwest 1456, May 31
OAK-LAS, 5:30-7:00am
Southwest 5136, June 1
LAS-OAK, 8:00-9:30pm

SAN FRANCISCO 
Southwest 1078, May 31
SFO-LAS, 5:10-6:35am 
Southwest 3308, June 1
LAS-SFO, 6:45-8:20pm

SAN JOSE
Southwest 2063, May 30 (THURSDAY)
SJC-LAS, 10:00-11:15pm 
Southwest 6874, June 1
LAS-SJC, 8:00-9:25pm

For any student who purchases one of the May 31 flights and one of the June 1 flights and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will rebate $100 of the ARML fee you have paid. Please note that the Thursday night flight out of San Jose is currently NOT eligible for the $100 rebate as we are strongly encouraging students to fly in on Friday if they are not taking the bus. Fares are likely to go up as people start buying tickets, so purchase them early if you're planning to fly. Also note that this $100 refund will not necessarily apply to other flights we open up or to purchases made after April 30; if we approve new flights or extend the deadline for claiming refunds I will post details, but DO NOT ask about other Bay Area flights for now.

Remember, NO student goes to ARML unless it is on the bus or one of the flights we approve or pre-approved travel with their parents, as we need adult supervision at all times on the trip. Flight rebates will be issued after ARML is over.

For parents interested in going to Las Vegas, you may feel free to book any flight you choose and to make your own arrangements for accommodations in Las Vegas. If you are traveling independently to Las Vegas, we'd still like to know your transportation details so we can coordinate various aspects of the trip with you (for instance, we may be able to assist you with ground transportation, or we may ask you to volunteer to chaperone one of the flights if you are taking one of the approved flights).


T-SHIRTS

One of the great traditions of ARML is for teams to design matching t-shirts to wear on the day of the competition.  We invite you to submit a design for this year's SFBA/NorCal team t-shirt!  After designs are submitted, the full team will vote on their favorite.

Designs should consist of a front design and a back design.  To keep screen-printing costs low, you can use either (a) three colors on one side and one color on the other, or (b) two colors on each side.  Keep in mind that we traditionally get different-colored shirts for each team, so it's best if your design works with a variety of background colors.  We generally can't use different design colors for different background colors.

When submitting your design, send an email to arml@mathleague.org with exactly four files:
A .png file (.jpeg is okay in a pinch) of the front design, preferably superimposed on a t-shirt shape to show how it's positioned
A .png file of the back design (like the above)
A vector-graphics file (such as .tif) of the front design
A vector-graphics file of the back design
The .png files will be used on the ballot for voting on designs, while the vector-graphics files will be sent to the printer if your design is chosen.

Designs generally identify the team as "SFBA/NorCal", "Bay Area/Northern California", or similar.  You might also want to include "ARML", "2019", or other such things.  None of these are mandatory.  Please do not include anything offensive in the design; coaching staff reserve the right to censor or edit as necessary.

The deadline to submit designs is May 1st.



TEAM SELECTION

We are ready to announce the first ten students selected for elite teams. Each of these students will be on either the A1 or A2 team; exact placement will be determined later. We expect to announce another wave of elite team students next week, so if you haven't gotten your payment in yet, be sure to send that through our website or hand Tim a check at the beginning of practice tomorrow. We do not select anyone for an elite team until we have received their payment. Here are the first ten students:

[redacted]

For reference, below is a complete list of students who have paid their ARML fees up to this point. Also, be sure to spread word to your friends about ARML; we'd love to bring as many students as possible this year, and it's not too late to join the team!

[redacted]

Thursday, April 18, 2019

[2019 ARML] - Practice on *Saturday* this weekend!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Saturday, 2pm-5pm in Palo Alto, at Room H1, Cubberley Community Center. You can find more information about practice at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

At the practice website, you can also find a spreadsheet that I've set up to help organize carpools to practice. You can post your information there, and contact others who might want to carpool to practice.

Practice materials from past practices can also be found at the practice website, with the following username and password:
Username: sfba
Password: arml

As always, if you need to miss a practice, please make sure that you fill out the Practice Absence Form on the practice website *before* practice, with a good reason.

As an additional reminder, you can submit your notarized permission slips at practice.

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

Finally, Freya has written up some tips from last practice, and I've included them below. :) 

Best,
Moor

---------------------------------------------

Lastly, here are some pointers based on what I saw last practice. I know I only got the chance to work with some of you then, but I'm posting the tips here because they apply to everyone, not just my group :)

- When selecting problems at the beginning of the team round, make sure that every problem has AT LEAST ONE PERSON working on it, especially if that problem is in the first half of the test. In general, it's good to have 1-2 people working on each problem from the beginning. 

- As soon as there are conflicting answers to a team round problem, the boardmaster (who records the answers on the board) should IMMEDIATELY and LOUDLY call out the conflict and make sure the people who came up with the conflicting answers work together to resolve the conflict. A conflict should not be sitting on the board for more than a few seconds before it is getting resolved. If the boardmaster has not called out the conflict, one of the other team members should check the board and call it out (so everyone should be monitoring the board throughout the test, not just the boardmaster).

- When you call out a problem to work on, make sure the boardmaster has recorded your *correct* initials on the *correct* problem. If your initials are not recorded or recorded incorrectly after a few seconds, CALL THEM OUT AGAIN LOUDLY. Do NOT wait until you got your answer for the boardmaster to record what you've been working on. It is crucial that the team knows what you're working on at all times.

- Remember that team round answers must be recorded *on a separate sheet of paper* to be graded. Thus, at the 1-minute warning, the boardmaster should copy down all answers ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER for grading. (If the boardmaster forgets, it is the responsibility of the rest of the team to remind them or copy down the answers themselves.) In addition, have at least one other team member VERIFY that the answers on the separate sheet of paper have been copied down correctly. It'd be a shame to miss problems due to mistranscription!

- This should go without saying, but NO TALKING DURING THE RELAYS. The team will get disqualified for talking during the relays (and individual round). While this has never been a problem during the contest, it has been a recurrent problem during practices, and we should practice in the same way that we would in the real contest.

- DO NOT SUBMIT THE SAME RELAY ANSWER TWICE AT THE 3- AND 6-MINUTE MARKS. You are only graded based on your latest submission. So, if you submit the same (correct) answer that you submitted at 3 minutes at 6 minutes, you will cost your team 2 points. Don't do that.

- That said, ALWAYS SUBMIT SOMETHING AT 3 MINUTES, even if you are almost certain it's wrong. There's no penalty for submitting an answer at 3 minutes, so submit something; there's a chance that any answer you submit might be correct, but there's no chance that a blank (or lack of) submission is correct!

Monday, April 15, 2019

[2019 ARML] - Practice materials from first practice

Hi everyone, 

It was great to see everyone at our first ARML practice today. I have posted all materials (problems and solutions) used at practice on the practice website, and I will continue to do this after each practice. In order to view this material, use username=sfba and password=arml.

Our next practice will be on *Saturday*, April 20, 2pm-5pm, at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

As a reminder, if you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the practice website before that practice, with a good reason. In particular, there is no need to email me about missing a practice, and I do not accept practice excuses over email. Unexcused absences may negatively affect placement on elite teams.

At the practice website, you can also find a spreadsheet that I've set up to help organize carpools to practice. You can post your information there, and contact others who might want to carpool to practice. In particular, the ARML coaches really appreciate getting rides from BART stations in the East Bay. :)

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Best,
Moor

Thursday, April 11, 2019

[2019 ARML] - First ARML Practice on Sunday!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to another year of ARML! I am organizing our team's practices for this year. Practices will be held weekly until ARML, on a mix of Saturday and Sunday afternoons. All information can be found at our practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

Our first practice will be this Sunday, April 14, 2pm-5pm, at the College of San Mateo, Room 16-209. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website. I've posted some information there about driving to practice and parking.

ARML is a team activity, and as such, it is really important that everyone come to practice whenever possible -- the team depends on everybody's active participation. If you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the website before that practice, with a good reason. Unexcused absences may negatively affect placement on elite teams.

As a reminder, Sunday April 14 is also the registration and payment deadline for priority consideration for spots on elite teams. I will be able to collect checks (and permission slips) at practice, and I'll be happy to accept any paperwork that you bring.

I've heard that traveling to practices can be a challenge, so I've set up a Carpool Form on the website to assist you in setting up carpools. You can fill out that form to express interest in carpooling. The form responses are public, so you can view responses and contact each other to set up carpooling.

One request: We have a number of coaches who need rides to practice... they're mostly coming from Berkeley but can meet a carpool at any BART station. Would you be able to help? If so, please reply to this email and let me know. Thanks!

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

One more thing: Join the SFBA ARML facebook page! If you're not in the group, request to be added and I'll add you. :)

Again, all information about practices can be found at https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/... check there if you have any questions! If you have a question that's not answered on the website, let me know and I'll be happy to help. :)

Best,
Moor