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Welcome to the first POMO Proof Contest!

Please read the mechanics below in order to familiarize yourself with the setup of this contest.

The POMO Proof Contest (POMOPC) is a contest composed of proof problems designed to prepare students for various olympiads around the world.
The contest is structured into two divisions, those being the junior division and the senior division. In both contests, full solutions must be provided for each problem to receive full credit.
1. The junior division is an asynchronous 2-day contest that will run from February 20–23, each day having three problems to be answered in 4.5 hours. Each problem is worth 7 points. This division is made to provide a more accessible introduction to proof-based olympiads, targeting contests such as Pan African MO, Pan American Girls MO, USA Junior MO, East African MO, Centroamerican MO, and Iberoamerican MO.
2. The senior division is a one-day contest that will run from February 21–23 with 5 problems to be answered in 4 hours. Each problem is worth 7 points. This division is designed to simulate the Asia Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMO) and thus the difficulty is approximately calibrated to that of the APMO.
Schedule (Philippine Time, PHT / UTC+8):
- February 20, 2026, 7:00 PM: Exam 1 (junior division) is released.
- February 21, 2026, 12:00 PM: Exam 2 (junior division) and the senior division exam are released.
- February 24, 2026, 7:00 AM: All exams close.
The following are the regulations regarding eligibility for the junior division:
1. Students who are 18 years old or below and have not previously participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and have not been members of their country’s official IMO team are eligible to compete in the junior division.
2. All other eligible participants, including those who have participated in the IMO or have been part of their country’s official IMO team, must compete in the senior division.
3. Participants who are eligible for the junior division may choose to compete in the senior division instead, but may not participate in both divisions.
Participants will use the solution sheets uploaded at https://penchickomo.replit.app/assets/documents/POMOPC-AnsSheet-2026.pdf to write their solutions. These solution sheets will be uploaded to a Google Drive folder submitted by the contestant.
1. Participants must ensure that the division indicated in the solution sheet matches the division they are participating in.
2. No two problems may be submitted on the same page. If a solution is completed and the page is not filled, the participant must use the next page for the next problem. Hence, participants must have at least five copies (for the senior division) or six copies (for the junior division) of the solution sheets.
3. If the participant is not able to print the solution sheets, blank paper is acceptable. In this case, requested information (name, POMO username, country code, problem number, and page number) must still be written on the paper.
The available awards for the POMO proof contest is as follows. Students who have already graduated high school may still participate and receive any of the awards, but will not affect cutoffs.
1. The gold, silver, and bronze awards are given to the top two-thirds of students with nonzero scores, split into a 1:2:3 ratio for gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
2. The honorable mention award is given to all participants who garnered a score of 7 points in at least one problem in the test.

POMO Contests