Do you have what it takes to solve 20 complex math problems in 20 minutes? That’s what the LFHS Math Team has been training for over the past few months.
Members of the team will load a bus on Friday and drive down to Illinois State University to compete at State Finals. With hopes to advance to the State competition, the team has been working tirelessly: they practice every Monday after school and compete in various competitions throughout the year.
“During our regular meets in the season, we have what’s called the candy bar contest. For this contest as a whole team, we are given 20 questions and have to get more right than the other schools,” said senior member and oralist Devin Parsons.
To perform well at their competitions, each member must be well informed on a large variety of math topics. At practice, the members split up based on their respective grades and learn a new topic they will be quizzed on during an upcoming competition.
It may seem intimidating to know this amount of math content and to regularly be quizzed on it, yet freshman Rex Phillips enjoys being a part of the team.
“Math Team is an excellent experience overall. Joining the team is a great way to participate more at the high school, meet many people with similar interests, and challenge yourself more academically,” said Phillips.
Recently, the team has been preparing for specific events they will compete in at State. While it’s important to study the content, the preparation also includes the technique that the team plans to use for the problems.
“At the Regional and State meets, there is an eight-person event, where we’re given 20 questions and 20 minutes to answer them as a team,” said Parsons. “For that event, it’s really important to have someone keeping track of what questions everyone is doing and recording their answers. Carolyn Stach took on this role during the regional meet.”
Along with the eight person event, there is an oral competition where two students have to solve a math problem and then explain their work. This year’s oralists, Parsons and senior Elizabeth Silvay, earned first place in the North Suburban Conference meet’s oral competition. This formidable achievement required perseverance, skill, and hard work.
“One of the biggest challenges for me is that I’ve never been the biggest fan of public speaking, so I almost turned down the position. I’m so glad I agreed, because it has meant that I have been exposed to a wide variety of topics that we aren’t taught in typical math classes,” Parsons said. “Another challenge is that we have to self-study… It’s definitely difficult to manage along with my other schoolwork, but a majority of the topics I’ve found genuinely interesting, which helps.”
The questions are not easy to answer, either. Unlike the questions typically seen on math tests, these questions require more creative problem solving and outside-the-box thinking.
“When it comes to the team competitions, I feel that the questions are a little easier because everyone is solving them. But for the individual competitions, they’re much harder…I feel like we do a good job,” junior member Sufyan Hussain said.
This weekend at State, the team hopes to perform well. They already had an outstanding performance at their regional competition back in March.
“Making it to State was already an incredible accomplishment for the whole team, as we finished 2nd in our division, and 13th in the entire state. Personally, I am hoping to get another perfect score in the individual competition [at State] and possibly win the two-person event,” said Phillips.
Parsons wants to outperform her 10th place finish at last year’s State in the oral category. She also hopes the preparation the team has done the past few months will pay off with the team earning top ten awards.
“Regionals went a lot better than it did last year, and I think we have a good chance at being top ten in a few events. Multiple of the kids on our team have placed well individually across meets, and there’s been a lot of improvement throughout the season,” said Parsons.
If students are interested in joining the club next year, the difficulty level should not discourage them. All math lovers enrolled in any level of math at the high school are welcome to join.
“Most people wouldn’t think that taking what essentially is a math test could be enjoyable, but our team has a generally casual approach to it that makes it welcoming… Everyone there just enjoys doing math and wants to be there,” Parsons said.
Phillips also encourages anyone to join, even if they are hesitant or only slightly interested.
“I honestly could not recommend joining Math Team more… It is such a fantastic experience, from meeting new people to winning medals in competitions… It genuinely brightens every Monday!”
