General News, Lower School

Lower School Students Earn Regional Awards in Annual Math Contest

Students from Gr. 3, 4 and 5 had impressive results in this year’s math competitions. All Gr. 3 students recently completed participation in the Continental Mathematics League (CML) contest, where the high team score earned Harker a regional award. The six problems for each meet require logical thinking and reasoning, and schools compete internationally. Earning a perfect score of 18 over the three meets this year was Brandon Ma, who earned a medal for his achievement.

Although the top-scoring student always wins a medal, this is only the third time since Stephanie Woolsey, Gr. 3 math teacher and contest advisor, began administering the contest approximately six years ago that a perfect score has been earned. Ma earned an additional medal for being a national student winner for his perfect score.

Previous scores of 18 were earned by Grace Guan in 2007 and Rishabh Gargeya in 2008. Scoring a total of 16 points and earning certificates of recognition were Lilia Gonzales, Jerry Peng and Tiffany Wong.

Two students, Sahana Narayen and Nishant Ravi, both earned scores of five on each meet, for a total score of 15. The meets occur once a month in January, February and March during regular math classes. Scores are reported as both team and individual scores, with the highest possible team score being 36 for each meet. The highest six scores for the grade are reported as the team scores each month.

This year, students earning a score of six for at least one meet, in addition to the winners listed above, included Priya Bhanot, Bobby Bloomquist, Tim Chang, Brian Faun, Jacob Kim and Gene Wang. “These questions are challenging, and require students to think creatively and work carefully,” said Woolsey.  She added, “It’s a great way for students to demonstrate their problem-solving abilities outside of the normal course material.”

The cumulative Harker team score was 101, which tied with the Mirman School for the Gifted in Los Angeles and earned a regional award. This team score is in the top five percent of the 462 schools that participated this year.

Gr. 4 ranked in the top five percent of all 271 schools, earning 168 points out of a possible 180 points. Rajiv Movva, scoring 26 out of 30, was the fourth grade leader.  The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests: Movva, Michael Kwan, Shaya Zarkesh, Adrian Chu, Amy Dunphy, Edgar Lin, Griffin Ellis, Justin Su, Sahana Srinivasan, Neeraj Aggarwal and Rose Guan, who competed as a Gr. 3 cross-grader.

The Gr. 5 competitors were regional winners and ranked in the top two percent of all 287 schools, earning 172 out of a possible 180 points. Two students, David Zhu and Aneesh Samineni, earned regional individual awards and both had a cumulative score of 29 out of 30. The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests:  Zhu, Samineni, Peter Wu, Quentin Delepine, Steven Cao, Aditya Dhar, Alexander Lam, Antony Sagayaraj, Eric Pei, Kshithija Mulam and Rishab Gargeya.

The Harker Magazine

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