Palo Alto High School Places 6th in National Math Contest

Palo Alto High School has some of the best high-school mathematicians in the country, as demonstrated by their 6th-place finish in the 2014 Fall Startup Event, a national mathematics contest administered by National Assessment & Testing (NA&T,http://www.natassessment.com).

Coach Suz Antink prepared students for the first major competition of the academic year, in which students worked furiously for thirty minutes, racing to answer one hundred problems in a variety of mathematical topics.

According to Tom Clymer, the director of the competition, “It’s similar to a musician practicing scales; many of these skills can become almost instinctual.”

With so many questions and so little time, competitors must not only have strong mathematical skills, but also be able to quickly decide which problems to solve and which to skip.

After results from students around the country were processed, several Palo Alto High School students received individual awards, helping their team to place 6th in the nation.

Janet Li placed 6th in the middle school division, Mihir Singhal was 4th in the 9th-grade division, and Jerry Hong placed 19th in the 10th-grade division.

In the 12th-grade division, Joseph Chang and Luke Liao placed 17th and 25th, respectively.

Palo Alto High School will be participating in all four NA&T contests this year, including the 2014 Team Scramble on November 6th and the 2014 Ciphering Time Trials on December 11th.

There are several other national math contests that schools should consider participating in: The United States of America Mathematical Talent Search (http://www.usamts.org) is currently under way, and the first round will conclude on November 5th; The American Mathematics Competitions (http://www.maa.org/math-competitions) have a middle-school contest on November 18th and high school contests on February 3rd or 25th; MathCounts (http://www.mathcounts.org) is a middle-school contest with local competitions taking place in February.

National Assessment & Testing administers high-quality mathematics competitions that high schools can participate in through the mail.

Their contests cover a variety of formats, including individual and team tests, as well as a variety of difficulties, from one hundred easy problems in thirty minutes to fifteen complex problems in one week.

--Information courtesy of Palo Alto Unified School District.

--Image via Shutterstock