Founded in 2001, the Diana Nichols Harker Math Invitational (HMI) is an annual math competition run by the Harker School for middle-school students in and beyond the Bay Area. HMI provides the perfect opportunity for middle-school students to explore mathematics beyond school and to meet and collaborate with hundreds of other students who share their interests.

The 2024 Harker Math Invitational was held on Saturday, March 9, 2024 at the Harker Union campus.

Below was the schedule for the 2024 Harker Math Invitational:

9:00 - 9:30 Registration

9:30 - 10:00 Opening Ceremony

10:15 - 11:15 Individual Round

11:15 - 11:45 Break

12:00 - 1:00 Team Round

1:00 - 2:00 Lunch & Activities

2:15 - 2:45 Awards Ceremony

The schedule for the 2025 Harker Math Invitational TBA

Registration for the 2025 Harker Math Invitational has not opened yet. Please reach out to us at harkermathinv@gmail.com if you have any questions about registration rules.

The contest fee is $5 per student, which includes both the team and individual competitions and refreshments.

All competing teams must have 4 - 7 members. Teams with less than 4 students will be combined with teams from other schools.

Students who have qualified for the current year's MATHCOUNTS State competitions are allowed to participate in HMI but will not be considered for awards. We will place them in a non-competing team with other MATHCOUNTS States qualifiers.

The contest is split into two rounds, each 45 minutes. All questions are equally weighted, short answer questions and there are no penalties for wrong answers. When bonus questions are not applicable, Borda is used as a tiebreaker.

Participants are allowed to bring their own rulers, non-smartwatch watches, protractors, compasses, and scientific or graphing calculators; however, students may not bring their own scratch paper (it will be provided by us) or use any other computing devices or the internet. 

The Individual Round consists of 30 regular questions and 5 bonus questions. Sixth graders will only solve questions 1 through 20, seventh graders questions 1 through 25, and eighth graders questions 6 through 30. The bonus questions will be the same for all grade levels and will only be used as tie-breakers. Calculators are not allowed for the individual round.

The Team Round lasts for 45 minutes and consists of 15 questions. All students will solve the same set of problems with their teams. In addition, students are permitted to use calculators for the team round. Noncompeting individuals will be arranged into teams with others from either their own or other schools to participate in this round but will not be considered for prizes.

The Estimation Contest is a single estimation question consistent with each year's contest theme. The student who guesses closest overall to the answer will receive a separate prize.