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)