Math club offers contests for students

The math club has begun to offer intramural contests for students currently taking Geometry Enriched, Algebra 2 Honors or Trig/Precalc Honors courses in order to promote interest in mathematics among students.

The contests consist of six free response math problems in increasingly difficulty. Club president senior David Zeng said the first four problems are similar to textbook problems, while the last two push people past their normal limit.

“By proctoring these exams we hope to achieve more interest in math,” Zeng said. “Based on participation rates of the first round, we especially want more participation in geometry and trig/precalc.”

The contest is given in six rounds spread throughout the school year, and top 10 scorers are announced shortly after.

The tests are student-produced then approved by math teachers and club adviser P.J. Yim.

“We were looking for ways to promote math on campus beyond the minority of students who are already involved,” said Yim.

In order to keep control of the program during start up, the contest has only reached out to students in honors or enriched classes, according to Yim.

The first intramural contest was held on Sept. 30 and students from various grades and math classes took the test.

“We were hoping for 50 percent of students per class, so participation was a bit lower than expected,” Yim said. “We could probably do a better job advertising it since it’s only a few times a year, so in the future we hope to have more announcements.”

Students who took the test had mixed feelings.

“It was definitely a lot harder than I expected,” sophomore Amin Mirzadegan said. “But it was cool to see the types of challenging problems Math Club deals with and it was worth a try.”

In order to get the club off to a strong start, some teachers were asked to give extra credit for students partaking in the tests, and event coordinator Alissa Zhang said teachers have been helpful and supportive.

The next round of intramural contests will be held Oct. 26-28. Students can get more information at www.togamath.com.