Spartans Calculate Big State & National Math Competition Wins

St. Stephen’s Middle and Upper School mathematicians have been working the numbers and their math skills against the competition across Texas and the nation.
 
25 Middle School students recently (22- 8th graders and three 7th graders) participated in the national Mathematical Association of America's AMC8 competition. During the timed online test, students have 40 minutes to answer two dozen multiple choice questions. Middle School math instructor Chioma Mba says she is proud of her student’s interest, and expects the results to roll in next week.
 
Earlier in the school year, middle schoolers tackled another competition, the Mathworks Math Contest (MMC), which is a free 15-question test sponsored by Texas State University. The exam gives 6th through 8th graders the opportunity to explore mathematics and be challenged by high-level problems. 
 
Math instructor and Middle School math club sponsor Kerry Patterson said of the 814 public and private school students who took the test, the average score was a 3.68 out of 15 points — proving just how challenging each question is on a test with 15 problems. Stephen Fan ’31 scored a five, which was well above average and the highest of all SSES middle schoolers.  Patterson announced this achievement at lunch so Fan and the others get “bragging rights, and everyone screams and cheers,” and she urges more students to come try math club.  It is a “good outlet for . . . [the] math-minded” to “talk to each other and collaborate” on questions that go beyond their current studies, Patterson stressed.
 
Patterson challenged the nine 6th graders who took the MMC for the first time to try to get one problem right out of the 15 on the test, which everyone achieved. Story Springer ’31 was up for the challenge.
 
"I liked how complex the problems were, yet it was still fun to solve them,” said Springer.
 
Many of the students who have participated in the competitions are also members of the Middle School Math Club, which is a great way for Spartans to have fun with friends while growing their skills outside of their traditional math classes.
 
"I like math club because of the challenge,” said Raghav Sitaram ’31. He says the club serves as a playing field for the subject he enjoys a lot. 
 
The experience and exposure to math contests during their Middle School years is also helping prepare Spartans who want to continue down the competitive math path when they reach Upper School.
 
Upper School
Upper School Spartans recently showcased their best performance ever — earning a perfect team score of 30 points and excelling in the third round of the Texas Math League. 
 
Upper School Math instructor Michael Oberle has sponsored the math club competitions for 23 years, and says this is the first time he recalls a team getting a perfect score. The team score is the sum of the top five student scores.
 
Congratulations to Miyako Chen ’25, Aaron Gao ’27, Thomas Guan ’25, Simon Meyers ’25, Alex Sa ’27, and Paul Seo ’25 who all earned perfect scores (6 out of 6). 
 
When Guan was asked what he liked about the competition, he said, “I am better at math and I want to help the school get higher collective scores.” 
 
Overall, St. Stephen’s is currently holding second place in Texas out of 26 participating schools right behind Clements High School, a large public school in Sugar Land, near Houston.  
 
Upper School students who wish to compete generally do so during club time on Wednesdays or when the club gathers after school. This year, anywhere between 20 to 47 students have participated in any given round of the competition. Participants have 30 minutes to complete six questions that generally increase in difficulty. 
 
Oberle, known for his love of puzzles, games and all things math, says competitions offer a chance for students who enjoy math to “show their stuff.” Once a year, Spartans also participate in the American Mathematics Competition, a Mathematical Association of America national competition. For this online test, students get 75 minutes to answer 25 multiple choice questions. Five Spartans performed well enough this year to qualify for the American Invitational Math Exam in February.  
 
Oberle compares the process — from prep to execution — to that of an athlete getting ready for an important competition.  Just like in sports, practice and repetition is key. Oberle says students who regularly participate in the contests improve.  
 
Ready to put your math skills to the test? The following is an actual question from a past Upper School contest:
 
Twenty students sit in a row of twenty chairs, consecutively numbered from 1 to 20. At a signal, the student in seat 10 moves to seat 1, the student in seat 20 moves to seat 2, and each other student moves back sequentially to the next available higher numbered seat.  What is the least number of times this maneuver must occur before the student who started in seat 1 returns to seat 1?


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Address: 6500 St. Stephen's Dr., Austin, TX 78746
Phone: (512) 327-1213