This year Mayo High School’s math league has placed 10th in state after their hard work and dedication. Every Monday after school, the club’s 11 members would meet in Mr. Johnson’s classroom for an hour or hour and a half to practice math and have fun while finding new ways to solve problems. Member of the club, Jason Ding stated, “Math League is just a bunch of people who enjoy math getting together and have a lot of fun.”
Math League differs from the standard math you learn in class. Most math league members refer to it as “competitive math.” While competitive math still relies on math basics, it requires them to think outside the box and come up with different ways to view the problems to solve them. Solving problems as fast as possible is important, so they spend a lot of time learning and memorizing many “shortcut” formulas to allow them to solve problems much faster than usual. Jason Ding said, “Nothing is more satisfying than solving a difficult problem by using a shortcut or method that you came up with.”
The eight members who attended the competition are (L to R) back – Jason Ding, Leo Ting, Reva Patel, Cody Qiu; front – Andrew Sun, Jaden Qiu, Rohil Patel, Kamil Kukla.
There are four events in math league, and each event is an individual test that centers around a specific topic. The four events have a subset of math topics that have to be learned. Event A is primarily composed of algebra, and event B is composed of geometry, while events C and D change each year. Event C changes between trigonometry, series, counting probabilities, and some miscellaneous questions. Event D changes between quadratics, polynomials, logs, and conics. So a lot of categories of math had to be learned and mastered by these dedicated students.
Math League has a total of five regional meets and a state meet where the team goes up and competes against all the other teams in the state. This year the team finished in tenth place, which is a solid placement and deserves some applause for their hard work.
The Math League Club has been holding its own tournaments at school for those who want to try out some math to see if they are interested in the club or to just test their skills against fun math problems created by the club members rather than some “boring old math you see in school that aren’t interesting to solve,” according to Jason Ding.
New members are always welcome to join Math League, whether it’s someone who is doing post-graduate math or even someone just starting high school. Making it a fun welcoming club for anyone interested and has a passion for math. Although Math League is finished for the school year, the club is always open to new members who are ready to compete next year.
