Mu Alpha Theta reigns victorious at February Regional Competition

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Mu Alpha Theta, the school’s math competition team, traveled to Doral Feb. 15 to compete in the February Regional FAMAT competition hosted by Doral Academy High School. 

During the regular season, junior and high school students compete in topics covering pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, precalculus, statistics and calculus. Competing in two consecutive rounds, students take either two individual tests or one individual test and one team round test.

The 60-minute individual test, consisting of 30 questions in ascending difficulty, awards students five points for each correct answer, one point for each unanswered question and zero for wrong answers. If students get the same scores, the sudden death method is used for placings. After that, additional math questions are used as tie breakers for any students with identical answers. 

The team round, which assesses students on speed and accuracy, is usually composed of 13 questions. Teams of the top four students in each math division are awarded with points based on the minute they turn in the question. If a team turns in all correct answers in the first minute, they have the opportunity to earn 20 points. The second minute awards 16 points, the third awards 12 and the fourth awards eight.  In the case that a part of a team’s answer is incorrect, there is still an opportunity to earn two points for each part they answer correctly.

Congratulations to the following list of placers at this year’s February Regional:

Algebra I Individual Awards

Seventh grader Ashnia Bhatia – 1st

Seventh grader Ralph Brummer – 4th

Seventh grader Mira Nair – 10th

Seventh grader Kelly Xu – 11th 

Seventh grader Ameer Adada – 12th

Seventh grader Robert Knyazev – 13th

Seventh grader Alba Li – 14th

Geometry Individual Awards 

Freshman Olivia Chung – 5th

Freshman Arnav Bhatia – 7th

Freshman Christine Yu – 8th

Algebra II Individual Awards

Freshman Dhruv Ralhan – 1st

Freshman Jesse Deng – 2nd

Freshman Alexander Allain – 5th

Freshman Asher Bernstein – 6th

Freshman Siddharth Gupta – 8th

Freshman Hanfei He – 14th

Precalculus Individual Awards

Sophomore Kabir Gandhi – 1st 

Sophomore Anthony Rodriguez – 2nd 

Sophomore Daniel Zhao – 4th 

Sophomore Lauren Lee – 5th

Sophomore Ellie Kong – 6th

Sophomore Sanvi Pandya – 8th

Sophomore Julia Diez – 11th

Sophomore Anika Mishra – 15th

Statistics Individual Awards

Junior Aaron Alter – 2nd

Junior Kaitlyn Lee – 3rd 

Junior Samuel Danzig – 4th 

Junior Elizabeth Xiao – 5h

Sophomore Jonathan Wu – 12th

Junior Daniel Cai – 13th

Junior Yevanhelina Hetman – 14th

Junior Yulu Dai – 15th

Calculus

Senior Junsouh Hong – 2nd 

Senior Guilherme Salles – 3rd

Senior Apollo Lee – 5th

Senior Samuil Petrov – 6th 

Senior Jack Finneran – 8th

Junior Ishika Gadani – 9th

Senior Sebastian Estrada – 11th

Senior Rajam Arunprakash – 13th

Senior Sai Lalitha Kodukula – 15h

Among other schools, the Algebra I, Algebra II, statistics and calculus teams placed first. The math competition team also placed first in Interschool, which combines puzzles, math and trivia. The geometry team placed second, and, ultimately, Heritage placed first overall, sweeping the competition. As the math competition team continues to improve, Mu Alpha Theta paves the way to success in preparation for the FAMAT State Convention happening in April.

Freshman Olivia Chung places 5th in the Geometry Individual category. Students in their first year of math competition have already competed in their chosen category, geometry or Algebra II, for multiple competitions throughout the regular season. (Photo Credit/Angela Chung)

Seniors Junsouh Hong, Jack Finneran, Guilherme Salles and Samuil Petrov competed in the calculus team round. Clearing the competition, they placed first among other schools across the region. (Photo/Angela Chung)

Juniors Aaron Alter, Elizabeth Xiao, Daniel Cai and Kaitlyn Lee (from left to right) participate in the round 1 statistics team round. The team placed first after intensive practice together the week before. (Photo Credit/Daniel Ariew)

Alina, a rising sophomore at American Heritage, is looking forward to her first year on the Patriot Post. Apart from reporting, she’s very involved in the arts and can often be found creating a new painting in her free time. Alina enjoys ballroom dancing, music, fashion, literature, and mathematics as she is a part of the math competition team, the National English Honor Society, and the National Art Honor Society. Nevertheless, her recent discovery of her passion for journalism has inspired her to capture the rhythm of life at American Heritage this coming year.