The Challenge rules
participants
teams
presentations and questions
participants 
The Challenge is open to any school or college in the UK. Each
school or college can enter one team. If the demand for places
is high, the number of schools taking part may have to be restricted.
The Challenge is limited to students aged 16 to 18 who are
taking an AS level, A level, Higher, Advanced Higher, Vocational
A level or equivalent course. Employees and relatives of employees
of the Bank of England and The Times may not participate.
There is no restriction on the subjects being studied but the
Challenge will probably appeal mainly to students of economics
and business.
teams
The team should consist of four students, who must be registered
at the school or college. Each team should nominate a teacher
to act as a coach and adviser and to accompany the team to the
regional heats and the area and national finals.
Although the team members alone will represent the school or
college in the regional heats and the area and national finals,
teams may enlist help
and support with their research, analysis and preparation
from other class and school members, teachers and friends.
Team membership must not change during the competition except
in exceptional circumstances and with the prior agreement of
the Bank.
presentations and questions
When making their presentations and answering questions, teams
should adhere to the following rules.
Presentations should be no more than 15 minutes long. The chairperson
of the judging panel will indicate when 13 minutes has elapsed,
after which the team should conclude its presentation. Teams
which overrun will be marked down by the judges.
Each team member must make a significant oral contribution to
the presentation.
Team members may refer to hand-held notes and to their visual
aids but they should not read verbatim from scripts or visual
aids. They should look at the audience as much as possible.
Verbatim reading from scripts, laptop screens or visual aids
or exceptionally heavy reliance on notes does not automatically
disqualify teams from winning but teams who do this will be
marked down by the judges.
In the regional heats and area finals the format of the presentation
is at the discretion of the teams. For example, it could be
delivered using PowerPoint. National
finalists will be expected to use PowerPoint.
Teams should bring 3 printed handouts of their presentation for the judges. The handouts will not be taken into consideration by the judges in their marking and teams will not be penalised if, for technical reasons, they are unable to provide them. The handouts are simply to help the judges, who find it useful to have hard copies of the presentation, on which to make notes. The format is up to teams. The important thing is that the printed slides are clear and easy to read with space to make notes. Any last minute changes to slides can be done in manuscript at the event. Teams will not be marked down for this.
When answering the judges' questions conferring is allowed,
but teams will be marked down for lengthy or excessive conferring
which limits the number of questions that can be asked.
When answering the judges' questions the approach used is at
the discretion of teams. The key point is that team members
should work together as a team. Teams will be marked down if
answers are dominated by one or two team members.
When making their interest rate recommendation and when answering
the judges' questions, team members do not have to agree with
each other, but each point of view must be explained.
The judges' decisions are final. They will be announced at the
end of each presentation event.
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