===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2008 Winners =====

About the Competition:
The focus of the day is a fun and challenging mathematics competition, focusing on both individual and cooperative achievement. High Schools from the region may enter teams of up to three students in the competition.

The competition consists of two rounds: the individual round, and the team round.

• The team round presents each school's team with four or five challenging, open-ended problems. To solve these problems, the team members are allowed (and encouraged) to work together. Each team is to provide complete solutions to as many problems as possible, including justification of all steps and clear, concise explanations. The use of calculators is permitted during the team round.
   
• The individual round has each student, working independently, answer twenty multiple choice questions. Winners are chosen based on the number of questions answered correctly; there is no penalty for incorrect answers. The use of calculators is not permitted during the individual round.

Subject areas covered by contest questions include: algebra, geometry, functions and functional notation, exponents and logarithms, trigonometry, probability and statistics, logic and set theory, arithmetic sequences, geometric series, and number theory.

We also share a lunch buffet with the students, where awards are presented to the three students with the highest scores in the individual round of the contest and to the three teams with the highest scores in the team round.

Math Talks:
In addition to the competition, students are invited to participate in a brief workshop on a mathematical topic they probably won't see in high school. Recent topics have included:

• "What's Bigger Than Infinity?" (2005)
        -- by Dr. Kathleen M. Shannon
• "Fermat, Torricelli, Steiner... Not Just Any Point(s)" (2006)
        -- by Mr. Carvel LaCurts
• "The Curves Are Alive With The Sound of Mathematics" (2007)
        -- by Dr. Steven M. Hetzler
• "How to Save a Life: Mathematics in Medical Research" (2008)
        -- by Dr. Troy V. Banks

Past Years' Exams:
Here are some links to previous years' exams. These files are in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need the (free) Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.

• 2001: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2002: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2003: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2004: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2005: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2006: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2007: Individual Round (solutions)  -  Team Round (solutions)
• 2008: coming soon...

 ===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2008 Winners =====

  
2008 Winners:

TEAMS

• 1st Place: Salisbury School
    Team: Emily Farr, Robyn Glass, Kyle Lewis
    Coach: Conrad Wachter
   

• 2nd Place: Gunston Day School
    Team: Joseph Hong, Steven Yang, Winny Youn
    Coach: Karen Melhunek
   

• 3rd Place:  Salisbury Christian School
    Team: Phillip Demling, InHawn Kim, Tony Park
    Coach: Lisa Timmons
   

INDIVIDUALS

• 1st Place: Ross Roessler, Worcester Preparatory School
• 2nd Place: Yunmin Ni, Stephen Decatur High School
• 3rd Place (tie):
     Derek Wu, James M. Bennett High School;
     Howard Christopher, Saints Peter and Paul High School

Each of the students listed on this page won a U.S. Savings Bond as well as a book prize.

 ===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2008 Winners =====

Last modified 11/13/2008