Mathletes prepare for competition

Samo Mathletes, a group of math interested high school scholars, are currently preparing for their biggest Bay Math League match against ten other local high schools on Apr. 11 on Samo’s campus. The fairly new Samo club has been competing in rigorous competitions for only three years, and is coached by math teacher Emily Lee. The program focuses on testing students’ knowledge on key topics throughout the four levels of high school math, as well as quizzing them on research conducted prior to the competition.  Mathletes captains Edie Graber (’18) and Olivia Chu (’18) have been taking part in the competitions since their sophomore year and were competitors on the founding team. Both girls are incredibly passionate about the program and believe that the team has a lot of academic potential and that they will excel at their upcoming home match. “Samo Mathletes is the youngest team in the league,” Chu said. “Where other schools have mountainous archives of practice problems, we have seniors giving crash courses on calculus and hardworking underclassmen picking it right up. I don’t think I can be more proud of our team whatever the result, but don’t expect us to fall behind either. I think we’ll be expecting a plentiful of perfect 10’s and a couple perfect 30’s.” To prepare for the competition against other Southern California high schools next month, the students are working hard at every meeting. They meet every Wednesday at lunch, and work individually both in and out of school in order to be equipped for the problems they may face. Although it’s a huge time commitment, team members love taking part in the group. Member Micah Payton (’20) feels lucky to be a part of such a hard working group of intelligent scholars.  “It’s a lot of hard work. It’s a good community. The meets are pretty fun. I’ve grown because I get to talk to people who also like math, building a community around math and that’s nice and also I get to review math skills. I am looking forward to the fact that Samo is hosting. That is going to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to our team doing better and getting a higher ranking,” Payton said.  The practices focus mainly on reviewing the specific topic for each grade level standard and performing practice problems in preparation for the actual competition. At their meetings, the teams also converse about the treacherous team round that ends every competition. To begin the training for each competition, the grade level captains construct study guides centered around the specific topic that their grade is tested on; for example the ninth grade captain may create a study guide about parallelograms, to be referred to by all competitors enrolled in the ninth grade category.  As team members consider the study guides and individually review, they are offered a number of resources by the team leaders. These aids include one-on-one explanations of any unfamiliar problems or working as a group to examine a complex question on the whiteboard. Much of the training consists of materials from previously taken assessments and the developing library of practice tests available to team members. Lee is incredibly proud of the Mathlete team’s exponential growth throughout the year. She has watched bright students transform into fierce competitors in the span of a single semester, and it is one of the most rewarding elements of her job. The team hopes that their continuous hard work and training will translate to their next competition. “Our goal for the next competition is to get within the top 5, and we are working towards that. I’ve seen them practicing every week and they have study guides that they take home. I am hoping that we can continuously improve and recruit strong math students to want to come to these competitions and meet others who also love math,” Lee said.  As the Mathletes gear up to compete again this April, Graber is optimistic about the outcome. With a bright group of dedicated Samo students, the team is certainly aiming to perform well and score high. Individually, she has been able to experience personal growth and learning from her experiences as captain.  “I have learned how to manage a team while also trying to better myself in the process,” Graber said.  Currently, the Samo Mathletes team are focussed on preparing for the intense competition to come and are looking forward to experience it on their home-turf for the first time.