Math Club members excel in recent competitions

After months of hard preparation, members of the math club participated in their most important series of math competitions of the year: the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) 10 and 12 held on Feb. 4 and 19, and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) held on March 13 and 26. 

This year, 28 students from the school as well as 13 from Redwood Middle School qualified for the AIME, an invitational test given to the top few percent of scorers on the AMC 10 and 12. 

“I'm quite excited about how well the students are doing,” math club adviser and math teacher PJ Yim said. “I believe 28 AIME qualifiers is the largest number of qualifiers since 2008-09 and 2009-10 when we had 21 AIME qualifiers.”

Based on their AMC and AIME cumulative scores, top scorers will qualify for the USAJMO or USAMO, proof-based tests given to only around 500 top math contestants in the nation. The results for qualifiers are expected to come out around next week.

Apart from the AMC contest series, math club members also participated in the annual Berkeley Math Tournament (BMT) and Santa Clara Valley Math Association (SCVMA) Field Day on March 22. Saratoga placed fifth in BMT as a team. Sophomore Sean Shi also placed first in the Individual Round, and senior Edgar Chen placed fourth in the Discrete Focus Round. 

At SCVMA, sophomore Alexander Li placed fourth in the Open Precalculus contest, sophomore Celine Liang placed fourth in the Discovery Quest contest, while senior Priyanka Krishnamurthi and junior Kevin Chiang placed fourth together in the High School Leap Frog Contest.

“I think [what helped us succeed was that] everyone was really motivated to put their best foot forward and try the hardest they could,” Krishnamurthi said.

According to Krishnamurthi, the math club has prepared for the contests by practicing with contest materials from past years. 

“Having students work together on problems and on preparation helped us do really well,” Krishnamurthi said. 

In addition, math club co-president senior Matthew Lee said having more accomplished and involved members of the club to help guide other members has been an important factor in the club’s success.

“I definitely think the community we have has been getting closer, and as a result the way math club has been run has been getting more effective,” Lee said. 

Math club members plan to continue honing their skills and preparing for the upcoming USAJMO and USAMO, to be held on April 29.

“I am proud of the way officers and other main [members] have stepped up and ran the math club,” Yim said.