MindGames is intended to stimulate and challenge psychiatry residents on their medical knowledge and their ability to quickly, critically and accurately apply such knowledge in answering questions related to psychiatric disorders and treatment approaches. Competitors are expected to exhibit professionalism and fair play throughout the process.

General Game Rules and Regulations

1. Registration for MindGames opens December 16, 2024 and closes on January 13, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST. No registration will be accepted after this time. Registration guidelines will be sent to residency training directors.
2. The online exam will be available on January 27, 2025 at noon EST and will close on February 14, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Teams can take the exam only once within this two-week window. Any scores recorded after this cutoff time will result in immediate disqualification.
3. All Team Members are required to be members of the APA.
4. Teams should be registered and may only complete the exam under the Team Captain’s Learning Center account. Any account not associated with the team captain will not be permitted to take the exam.
5. Teams will have a maximum of 60 minutes to answer all exam questions.
6. The clock starts ticking when the first question appears and ends once 60 minutes have elapsed or the team completes all the exam questions, whichever comes first.
7. Teams may not return to skipped questions or change a previous answer.
8. The exam should be completed without assistance (including books, internet, journals, colleagues, and any and all other forms of aid).
9. The Program Director for the participating program is responsible for monitoring rule compliance.
10. Scores will be determined based on the number of correct answers. Ties will be broken in favor of the team that completed the test in the shortest amount of time. Points will not be deducted for any incorrect or unanswered questions.
11. The top ten teams will be announced on March 7, 2025, with the top three teams being named finalists. Shortly after the announcement, the finalists will be invited to the national live competition, to be hosted on May 18, 2025. The selected teams will have seven calendar days to accept the invitation. If a team fails to accept, their slot will be offered to the next highest-scoring team.

National Live Competition

1. The national final competition will occur on May 18, 2025 in Los Angeles, as part of the 2025 Annual Meeting.
2. The live competition will feature the top three highest-scoring teams from the qualifying exam. Teams can make player substitutions at the discretion of the Training Director of the program; however, the final team roster must be submitted to the MindGames coordinator in advance of the final competition for verification.
3. There will be two rounds of game play, each with five categories containing five questions apiece. Each question is valued from 100 to 500 points by difficulty. If a team answers correctly, the point value of the question is added to the team’s score. An incorrect response, or a failure to respond within ten seconds, deducts the question’s value from the team’s score and allows the other teams the opportunity to buzz in and respond.
4. The moderator will select the first question. Subsequently, the team that last answered a question correctly will choose the next question.
5. The moderator will read each question. To answer, teams can buzz in after the question is read. If a team buzzes before the question has been read in its entirety, they are disqualified from answering that question.
6. The team that buzzes-in first has 10 seconds to begin an answer. If they fail to supply an answer or answer incorrectly, a score deduction in the amount of the question’s point value will be assessed, and another team will have an opportunity to buzz in and answer.
7. During game play, the moderator has the authority to accept or reject an answer. If there is a dispute, the moderator can request the judges to issue a ruling. The judges’ ruling is final.
8. Any challenge must be advanced during game play. No challenges will be considered once the winner has been declared.
9. Game play ends when all of the questions have been asked. The team with the highest accumulated score at the end of game play wins. Ties will be broken through a “sudden death” round, during which the first team to score will be declared the winner. During sudden death, the moderator will read questions from randomly chosen categories.