Math Students Score High Nationally

In addition to their daily work in class, over 20 Westminster students in all forms participated in the Online Math League math competition in 2005-2006. The Online Math League was founded in 2005 to help improve students' math skills and encourage their enthusiasm for math. Each year, the organization provides a series of math competitions for third through 12th graders, with school teams and hundreds of individual student math competitors from around the United States and Canada.
 
Douglas Allen, chair of the math department, approached the department last summer and asked if they would be willing to give up three class periods over the course of the year for this competition. Needless to say, his idea was met with great enthusiasm. The three 30 minute tests were popular with the students and as it turned out, they did not miss class. They met after school and took the tests in room 10! Woojae Eum ’07, the president of the math club, encouraged the students to participate. His enthusiasm was infectious and the math club had a great year!

The Online Math League contests focus on a wide variety of math topics from basic skills for elementary students to algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and advanced math (trigonometry, analysis, calculus) for high school students. Multi-step questions and questions that force students to apply their mathematical knowledge in unique ways are included in the tests. The students and teams participate in three contests during the year – one in November, one in January, and the last in March. The tests are taken in the classroom and scored by their teachers who put the scores online where the results and rankings are immediately available.

First in Algebra 2
Adam Lewicki ’07 placed first in the country from over 600 math students taking the Algebra 2 test and Woojae Eum ’07 ranked fourth in a group of over 400 students on the Advanced Math test. As a team, the five Westminster students that took the Algebra 2 test placed third among 36 competing schools from across the United States. The eight students who took the Advanced Math test came in fifth out of 38, and the seven students who took the Geometry test came in 14th out of 39. Both Adam and Woojae received individual plaques for their high scores, while the school received a plaque for the Algebra 2 team achievement. The plaques were presented at a school assembly.
 
Westminster students that participated in the Online Math League included: Woojae Eum ’07, Neil Hannah ’06, Brian Kwak ’06, Montira Mahinchai ’06, Dale Michelson ’06, Sam Ogden ’06, Andrew Ugalde ’07, and Kevin Wu ’07 in Advanced Math; Philip Cho ’09, Adam Lewicki ’07, Helena Morris ’08, Andrew Overbye ’09, Charles Park ’09, and Marianne Specker ’08 in Algebra 2; Framroz Bankwalla ’08, James Kingsbury ’09, Chris Shimamoto ’09, Josh Zalinger ’09, and Kyle Zinn ’09 in Geometry.