Aliso Niguel High School’s Math Olympiad club continues its participation in the annual Math Olympiad competition, starting with the American Mathematics Competition exam they took on Nov. 13 in Ms. Austin’s room.
Known to be one of the more famous and long-standing math clubs, Math Olympiad has been at Aliso Niguel for more than 25 years. It is currently being run by its President, Pragya Singhal (11); Vice President, Ella D’lima (11); Secretary, Dev Vijay Nair (11); Treasurer, Jake Antonio (11); and Advisor, Ms. Austin.
The club aims to prepare students of any level or background in math to compete in the Math Olympiad competition, an internationally prestigious and infamous competition that allows students from all over the world to compete against each other.
However, before competing internationally, students must qualify in two preceding exams of the competition, beginning with the American Mathematics Competition, otherwise known as the AMC. If they receive a good score, they can participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, or the AIME, in February, before entering national or international leagues of competition.
The AMC has two testing days: version A took place on Nov. 5, and version B took place on Nov. 13. Aliso Niguel’s team signed up for version B exam, which took place after school in Ms. Austin’s room at 4 p.m., where she acted as a test proctor for the exam.
The exam consists of 25 multiple-choice questions over the span of 75 minutes, featuring problems containing concepts such as geometry, algebra, number theory, combinatorics, etc. The exam given also depends on the student’s grade level. The AMC 10 is designed for and distributed to ninth to 10th grade students, and the AMC 12 is for 11th to 12th grade students.
The exam is on paper and must be completed without a calculator. A unique aspect of the exam is the grading system.
Ms. Austin said, “The [grading] scale is a little bit funny. You get a point for leaving [a question] blank, so it’s kind of like a gamble and you have to play with the point system as well as know the math.”
Unlike a typical exam that grants you zero points for empty answer choices, the AMC rewards blank answers with a point to avoid mindless guessing. With this, the exam truly challenges students to work precisely and intentionally.
Besides the club’s participation in this main competition, President Singhal has been searching to expand its domain of activities. The Math Olympiad is trying to enter other local competitions but needs additional participants who are interested in competing. Until then, it will continue preparing its members for tests like the SAT, PSAT, and ACT, and it will provide tutoring sessions for students with any need for help.
A large challenge this year for the Math Olympiad, despite the organization’s high reputation, is its low participation rate from students at Aliso Niguel. While other schools usually get high participation (with some schools having 60+ AMC takers) that allow for sponsorships that pay for the exam fees, Aliso Niguel had fewer than 5 people who took the AMC this year. Because of this, Singhal has made it her goal to foster more participation and life into the club.
“I really hope that more people just join and participate in the competitions, even if you are not good at math or even if you just want to improve”, she says. “We need to foster more appreciation for math in general.”
Club meetings consist of collective practice and learning led by the President of the club.
Ms. Austin says, “We’re meeting once a month currently, but once a week, they’re sending [the members] practice and competition problems, and then they would usually come and say, ‘hey, I couldn’t get this one right’ and share methods to solve it.”
With passion and with drive, the Math Olympiad club continues its mission to conquer competitions and share the joys of mathematics with Aliso Niguel students.
