Fifty-six students from Heritage’s math competition team traveled to Fayetteville, Ark. from June 24 – 30 where they competed against 29 other schools for the title of national champion. Remaining the top private school in the competition, the team claimed nine Team Awards and 187 individual trophies, placing second overall after longtime rival Buchholz High School.
Mu (the team’s Calculus and Statistics divisions) and Alpha (the team’s Precalculus division) placed second overall while Theta (the team’s Algebra and Geometry division) placed third.
For this convention, students were required to take an individual test, a ciphering test, and three topic tests. The individual test was a one hour 30-question test dealing with all topics of a specific field of math, the ciphering test was a 36-minute 12-question test in which students were given three minutes to solve each problem, and the topic test was a one hour 30-question test chosen by the student that targets a specific topic in the division that they are taking.
Students enjoyed creating memories around others with similar interests. “It was a great time to make some last memories with my friends and wrap up my years in competitive math,” said recent alumna and former co-president Rosa Wu.
Senior Vishaka Joshi, who serves as the math team’s vice president of membership had similar sentiments. “Nationals is always an interesting experience because you’re in an environment with hundreds of people that all really like math,” she said.
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it before and during the convention, but it’s always a little easier to do it with the rest of the team.”
For those interested in being a part of Mu Alpha Theta, membership in the Heritage math competition team is required. Daniel Ariew, a coach of the school’s math competition team, can be contacted at [email protected]. Dr. Radleigh Santos, the head coach, can be contacted at [email protected].
