Rules

1. Essay entry can be written by individual or a team of no more than 3 members from the same school.
2. Each school is allowed to submit a maximum of ten entries in each category.
3. Essay submitted for the competition must not have been submitted to any other inter-school competition organized by any other organization or been previously published in journal, magazine or any form of publication.
4. Plagiarism, or lifting of large portions of texts from existing source and without acknowledging the source, is an academic dishonesty. All entry essays will be scanned by a plagiarism software. Essays that are found to have plagiarism will be disqualified and the plagiarism reports will be sent to the teachers in charge. Participants should be mindful and careful when using references. Besides quotations, mathematical definitions and formulae, which can be copied with explicit acknowledgments and proper citations, the rest of the essay must be written in students’ original wording. Teachers are encouraged to scan the essays with a plagiarism software before the submission.
5. The use of generative AI tools is acceptable when used ethically and responsibly to enhance learning, but not as a replacement for participants’ intellectual contribution. Participants using generative AI tools in preparing their essay are required to provide the prompts used and acknowledge the sources of information. Not disclosing or declaring when generative AI is used is a breach of academic integrity.  
6. During the judging period, participants are expected to be called for an interview by the judges and they should be readily to clarify, explain and defend their ideas presented in the essay. This is to make sure that the authors of the essay own the original conceptualization of the ideas presented. 
7. All essays should be written in English.
8. The length of the essay should be between 1000 and 1500 words (excluding the abstract, formulae and equations, tables and figures). Essays that exceed the word limit will be disqualified.
9. Each entry should include an abstract of not more than 100 words.
10. Materials submitted will become the property of the Singapore Mathematical Society and will not be returned.
11. By submitting the online registration form, participants are giving consent to the society to publish their names on Singapore Mathematical Society’s webpage for administrative purposes.
12. The organizers reserve the right at any time to amend rules & regulations, replace or substitute prizes without prior notice.