MathCounts Competition
March 15, 2010
This weekend, Sean was able to compete in the Arizona state MathCounts competition. He earned the right to compete by finishing 2nd in the regional competition.
Mathlete is what they call the kids who compete. Lol, not sure how accurate that moniker is but its cute.
After registration, they kicked all the coaches (yes, mathletes have coaches) and parents out so the kids would have quiet and concentrate on the tests. The testing went for about 2 1/2 hours. At which time they reviewed the questions and answers.
Now, I know a pretty fair amount of math having been 2 classes short of a math major in college. This were some pretty tough questions for middle school kids. The tests are designed for low scores to weed out the top. No one ever gets them all correct.
After these first two rounds (the 2 1/2 hours), the top 10 kids qualify for the showdown round. This is a one vs one math raceoff with the fastest correct answer winning. Each one vs one match is first to two points (except for last three rounds which is to 3 points). It starts with #10 vs #9 with winner facing #8 and so on. As posted before, Sean was not in the top ten.
These kids were just machines. They were working through these questions in seconds. On many, they were much faster than I in solving the problems.
Several were asked how much time outside of school they spent prepping for the competition. Common answers ranged from 10 – 20 hours a week. Well, that explains why Sean wasn’t in the top ten as his number was more like zero.
Still, great job just to qualify! Despite being in middle school, he has been earning high school credit for his math, so hopefully that will give him a leg up.
Sean and Savannah Qualify for Math Counts Competition
February 5, 2010
A couple of days ago the kids middle school held a math competition for the students to see which students would get to go to the regional Math Counts competition.
Sean competed last year and placed fourth in the region if my memory serves me right. This was Savannah’s first attempt at the Math Counts competition. It is both a team (the school) competition and an individual competition. The top finishers get to advance to the State level competition.
Since Sean is already taking high school math and competed last year, we figured he would do well again. And he did, finishing first in the school on the test. In fact, he set a new record high score in school history. He will be the team captain for the school in the competition.
Savannah also did well on the test and qualified for the B team. In the team competition of Math Counts, only the A team competes. However, the B team gets to compete in the individual portion of the competition.
So, congratulations to both Sean and Savannah and good luck at the Math Counts competition.
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