Reaping Exponential Benefits: A Look Inside Math Competitions at Park

We regularly watch and celebrate our student athletes, but it’s less often that we think of our students as mathletes. 

In fact, Park provides several opportunities for students to hone and demonstrate their abilities in math competitions, both within the school and against students from other schools.

Five times this year, all Upper Division students will participate in the Mathematical Olympiad for Elementary & Middle Schools (MOEMS), joining over 120,000 students from around the world who take part in this program.  For each Math Olympiad, students are given 30 minutes in which to solve 5 problems without the use of a calculator.  Students in Grades 5 and 6 participate in the elementary division of the test, and students in Grades 7 and 8 participate in the middle school division.  

In the past, the Math Olympiad was optional for Park students, and those who opted to participate would take the test during a TEACH period.  This year, the advent of flex time on Wednesday afternoons has created the opportunity for all Upper Division students to participate.  However, while students in Grades 5 and 6 must complete the questions on their own, students in Grades 7 and 8 have the option of either taking the test individually or collaboratively with classmates (in which case their score does not count).  Each question on the Math Olympiad is worth one point, and students who score 4 or 5 points on a test are acknowledged at a subsequent Morning Meeting.  Additionally, Park submits students’ scores to MOEMS so that they can compete against students from other schools.  The results last year were “excellent,” according to Math Department Chair Sarah Hadden: Park ranked in the top 10% of all schools in the elementary division, and several Park students were recognized for placing in the top 2%, 10%, and 20% of test participants.

Over the next few months, all Upper Division students will participate in another math contest sponsored by the New England Mathematics League (NEML), a regional chapter of an organization called the Math League.  On the NEML test, which they will complete during their regular math class, students will have 30 minutes in which to solve 30 multiple-choice questions, using calculators if they wish.  Park submits students’ tests to NEML and performed impressively last year, ranking second in New England among Grade 6 students, fourth among Grade 7 students, and ninth among Grade 8 students.  The highest scorers on the test from around the world are invited to the Math League International Tournament/Camp for a week over the summer, and several Park students were asked to participate last year.  According to Ayan G. ‘27, “Math Camp was a great experience.  I got to interact and speak with kids from all over the world, from Canada all the way to China and India.”  Ayan says that he also enjoyed participating in activities such as “listening to college professors giving lectures about the true definition of infinity.”

A few weeks ago, Upper Division students also had the opportunity to take part in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), a program in which over 300,000 students from around the world participate.  Park students took the AMC 8 test, which is targeted to Grade 8 but can also be taken by younger students.  Students who chose to participate did so during a recess/lunch period and had 40 minutes in which to solve 25 multiple-choice problems without the use of a calculator.  Sarah describes the AMC as more difficult than the Math Olympiad, and she was very pleased with the number of students who elected to participate. 

In a particularly exciting development for our student mathletes, Sarah has revived Park’s participation in the national MATHCOUNTS program this year.  Park successfully fielded MATHCOUNTS teams in the past (as evidenced by the trophies on display in the Grade 7 hallway), but the program faltered after Covid.  This fall, Sarah introduced a MATHCOUNTS elective in order to give interested students the opportunity to participate in the program without having to sacrifice other time.  The ten students in the elective put in lots of effort working through problems and developing problem-solving strategies.  According to Abby G. ‘27, “MATHCOUNTS helps you learn new and different ways to solve problems.  I enjoyed working together with my classmates and combining our strengths to solve problems we might not be able to solve on our own.”

This past weekend, the students from Sarah’s MATHCOUNTS elective–with 4 designated as Park’s official team–traveled to the chapter-level competition in Lexington, where they competed against other middle schools from the area.  Mathletes took part in three rounds: the Sprint Round (40 minutes to complete 30 problems), the Target Round (4 pairs of problems with 6 minutes to complete each), and the Team Round (20 minutes for a team of 4 to complete 10 problems).  Park’s mathletes represented the school well.  The team placed sixth overall, and Ayan advanced to the Countdown Round, in which the top 16 students compete head-to-head to solve problems as quickly as possible!  

Sarah remarks that Park’s math curriculum does not teach to competitions, but they are still a useful way for students to see what they have learned.  She posits that Park’s focus on problem solving comes through in students’ performance and that competitions are a good challenge, noting that “so many kids surprise themselves” with how well they do.  She also points out that competitions provide an opportunity for “experience and exposure” in a relatively low-stakes environment.  Hazel F. ‘26 has chosen to take the Math Olympiad collaboratively and reports: “All the students in the room broke up into smaller groups but we still helped each other.  During the second Math Olympiad, I was working with a friend on a really tricky problem.  We checked with other students to see what they’d found and were able to compare our answers.  It was great to be able to work with people from other classes!” 

Sarah is looking forward to offering a Competition Math elective this spring to continue bolstering interest and participation among Park’s student mathletes.

By Elizabeth Prasse, P’27, ‘29, Park Perspectives Co-Editor

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