Freshmen skip math levels to gain competitive edge

Freshmen George Bian, Nevin Liang, and Justin Sun are all experts in their favorite field: math. They have fine-tuned the art of problem solving through years of practice and competitions, boosting them levels ahead of most of their peers.

While most students struggle to get by in advanced classes such as teacher PJ Yim’s highly difficult Trig-Precalculus Honors course, Bian, Sun and Liang ace almost every test without breaking a sweat.  

For Bian, his success in math began in Argonaut Elementary School, where he was able to finish advanced problem packets with ease.

“I was just naturally able to conceptualize the problems and everything fell into place,” Bian said.

Doing these competitions helped prepare Bian to excel in math teacher Yim’s class this year.

Similarly, Liang said that he began competitive math in fourth grade. He also credits his sister, Class of 2016 valedictorian Celine Liang, with inspiring him.

“Because my sister had such a great influence on me academically, she helped me in math as well,” Liang said. “[Celine] has always helped me along the way and is a great influence in my life.”

For the past several years, Liang garnered lots of support from Yim, who helped him with competitive math and taught him new strategies for competitions.

“I feel like all my freshmen have adjusted very nicely to the system at the school and that Math Club has prepared them well for the new subjects they face,” Yim said.

Liang is planning to compete in the United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) in April, one of the most prestigious math competitions in the nation.

Like Laing and Bian, Sun has also been an active math competitor. By the time he started high school, Sun has participated in over 15 math competitions, including the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). Both are extremely competitive contests, with only 5 percent of all participants passing to the next level.

Sun began his math career in elementary school by joining the Math Olympiad Program, but he only began to approach mathematics competitively in middle school.

“I started doing better and was able to solve more problems [towards the end of sixth grade],” Sun said. “At the beginning of eighth grade I really started to see my hard work pay off as I was getting better and better scores in the competitions I went to.”

Sun said this trend continued throughout his freshman year, during which he used books like “The Art of Problem Solving” to prepare him for the AMC 10 and AIME.

For Bian, Liang and Sun, math is not just a subject, but an identity-forming passion. As the only underclassmen in a traditionally upperclassmen-dominated class, Bian enjoys learning not only math but also life lessons from his older peers and role models.

“In class it’s fun to hear about the journeys that the [juniors and seniors] have while also getting ready to have my own adventures when I get older,” Bian said. “Not only is it fun to study in class and learn about new concepts, but the experience of working with older students creates a great atmosphere.”