===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2007 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 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.
    
• The team round presents each school's team with four or five more 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 they can, including justification of all steps and clear, concise explanations. The use of calculators is permitted during the team 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 on the individual portion of the contest and to the three teams with the highest scores on the team portion.

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:

• "Mathematics: At the Front of Good Chemistry" (2004)
        -- by Dr. Divya E. Devadoss
• "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

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)

 ===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2007 Winners =====

  
2007 Winners:

TEAMS

• 1st Place: James M. Bennett High School
    Team: Molly Cinderella, Pearle Lipinski, Derek Wu
    Coach: Kaye Reichenberg
   

• 2nd Place: Stephen Decatur High School
    Team: Bonnie Eisenman, Matthew Smarte, Keith Spangler
    Coach: Sherryl Angel
   

• 3rd Place:  High School
    Team: Dan Flagg, Trevor Lee, Tuyet-Nhung-Nguyen
    Coach: Dr. Laurel Hollenbeck

INDIVIDUALS

• 1st Place: Derek Wu, James M. Bennett High School
• 2nd Place: Molly Cinderella, James M. Bennett High School
• 3rd Place: Ross Roessler, Worcester Preparatory School

Each of these students won U.S. Savings Bonds as well as book prizes.

 ===== About the Competition - Math Talks - Past Years' Exams - 2007 Winners =====

Last modified 9/16/2008