Mu Alpha Theta, the school’s math competition team, traveled to Tallahassee, Fla. Jan. 10 to compete against 21 other schools from across the state in the January Statewide FAMAT competition hosted by Chiles High school. 

Junior and high school students competed in topics covering pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, precalculus, statistics and calculus. Each took either two individual tests or an individual test and a team round.

The 60-minute individual test, consisting of 30 questions in ascending difficulty, awards students 5 points for each correct answer, 1 point for each unanswered question and 0 for wrong answers. If students are to 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, usually with around 13 questions depending on disputed answers, awards teams of the top four students in each math division with points based on the minute they turn in the question. Given that they turn in a question in the first minute and all their answers are correct, they have the opportunity to earn 20 points. The second minute awards 16 points, the third awards 12 and the fourth awards 8. 

Additionally, open divisions like Mu Alpha Open allowed for multiple grades to take the test as it can cover everything from algebra to calculus. Similarly, the Theta Open can cover everything from geometry to algebra.

Congratulations to the following list of placers at this year’s January Statewide:

Geometry Individual Awards 

Freshman Ziqian Yu – 5th

Eighth grader Arnav Bhatia – 6th

Algebra II Individual Awards

Freshman Jesse Deng – 6th 

Theta Open Individual Awards

Freshman Siddhartha Gupta – 6th 

Freshman Ezra Moses – 8th 

Freshman Pascal Brinkmann – 10th 

Mu Alpha Open Individual Awards

Senior Jack Finneran – 4th 

Senior Rajam Arunprakash – 5th 

Senior Samuil Petrov – 6th 

Senior Sebastian Estrada – 8th 

Senior Allen Ting – 10th 

Precalculus Individual Awards

Anika Mishra – 1st 

Lauren Lee – 2nd 

Kabir Gandhi – 4th 

Jeffrey Xu – 6th 

Daniel Zhao – 8th 

Statistics Individual Awards

Junior Daniel Cai – 3rd

Junior Pranav Rai – 9th 

Junior Jason Tang – 11th 

Junior Kaitlyn Lee – 15th

Calculus

Senior Yusuf Sheikh – 2nd 

Senior Guilherme Salles – 3rd

Senior Timothy Kong – 4th

Senior Allen Ting – 5th

Senior Junsuoh Hong – 6th 

Junior Darsh Patel – 10th 

Senior Samuel Petrov – 13th 

Among 21 other schools, the geometry and Algebra II teams placed 4th, the precalculus and calculus teams placed 1st, the statistics team placed second and, ultimately, Heritage placed second after Frazer High School. Looking forward to a competitive and challenging season, students are continuing to expand their mathematical knowledge and improve with practice.

_{Statistics students from Doral Academy, Frazer High School and Heritage receive their awards. Junior Daniel Cai was placed 3rd overall with a score of 120 on the Statistics Individual test. (Photo/Sanvi Pandya)}

_{The calculus team places first overall at the January Statewide. Senior Yusuf Sheikh, senior Timothy Kong, senior Xuzhou Ren and junior Darsh Patel competed against 21 other schools in the second session of testing at Chiles High School. (Photo/Sanvi Pandya)}