Students are competing with students at their grade level or above in there own school. Schools are also competing against other schools across the nation. The top six scores from each meet are sent in the CML headquarters, and each school receives a list of the top schools in each state and region about three weeks later.

The problems usually do not require above grade level math abilities, but they do require more advanced problem-solving abilities.

Here is a sample question from the fourth grade quiz.

A bag of a dozen oranges was selling for $3. The manager of the store decided to add some oranges to the bag, but not change the $3 sticker price on the bag. Now the price of the oranges was $2 a dozen. How many oranges were added to the bag?

During the 2006-2007 school year (and on future alternating years) fourth and fifth graders will be working through problems in "The Best of CML Grades 4-6 1990-1995" booklet. Third graders will be working through problems in "Thes Best of CLM Grades 2-3 1990-1995" booklet.

During the 2007-2008 school year (and on following alternating years) fourth and fifth graders will work through problems in "The Best of CML Grades 4-6 1996-2000" booklet. Third graders will be working through problems in "The Best of CML Grades 2-3 1996-2000" booklet.

Students are expected to spend at no more than 10-15 minutes on each problem. If they can't find a solution, they need STOP WORKING ON THE PROBLEM andto write down what they tried, and then get a parent to initial that page. The page is scored as "PS". Students, especially students new to CML, are NOT expected to have mastery of all the skills and strategies necessary to solve all the problems. Students are expected to ATTEMPT all problems using creativity, perseverance, independent thinking, diligence and the skills and strategies they have learned.

Scoring of student work:

E’s (Exceeds EL expectation for grade level). Correct Answer. Work shown in at least two different ways, including writing AND numeric sentences or pictures.
M’s (Meets EL expectation for grade level). Correct Answer. Work is shown in sufficient detail to see strategies used and how the problem was worked out.
PS’s (Parental signature) Student spent at least 10 minutes working on problem, wrote down strategies tried and work attempted AND parent initialed work.
IP’s (In Progress toward meeting EL expectation for grade level). Answer is incorrect, but work is shown OR answer is correct, but work shown is insufficient.
CP’s (Concerned with Progress) Work was not turned in and/or there is no parental signature indicating student spent 10 minutes on incomplete problem.

OT (On Time) Work was finished and in class, ready to be reviewed, on the due date. Circled problem numbers have not been turned in yet.

Parents of participating students will be sent an annotated answer key to these problems. Parents: please keep these answer keys in a secure location, but feel free to use them as you see fit. Some parents use them just to check their child's work. Others use them to better understand what the problem is asking and one way to solve the problem, and then give their child hints, as needed.

The CML contest is open to all third, fourth, and fifth grade students in the building, regardless of whether they are participating in Extended Learning or doing the CML practice problems. However, students who practice the CML problems tend to do much better on the quizzes.