Journey sends five students to state-level MathCounts

MADISON – Math Team students from Journey Middle School Math Team recently competed in two national events, American Math Competition 8 or AMC8 and MathCounts.

“They did fabulous in both competitions,” Mrinal Joshi said. Joshi is team sponsor and Math Department Head. “I wanted my students to have exposure to national competitions.”

In AMC8, Kylie Zou, Esteban Jerez and Tran Ngo won the Certificate for Honor Roll by scoring in the top five percent of competitors. “Journey received the Certificate of Merit from AMC8 because our team score was higher than 50. Our team score of 61 was 5 points short of the top 1 percent,” Joshi said.

“This was our first AMC8 competition. Considering this is just our second year as a new school, I couldn’t be more proud,” Joshi said.

In the MathCounts event, Journey Math Team won the Chapter competition and qualified to advance to state-level bouts. MathCounts had 54 participants.

MathCounts, a national middle-school math competition, builds problem- solving skills. Math-Counts has four levels of competition — School, Chapter, State and National. Each level of competition has four rounds –Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown.

“After competing at the School Sprint and Target rounds, the top 14 students from grades 6-8 represent us at the Chapter competition,” Joshi said. “The top two teams and top two individuals from the Chapter competition compete at the state level . . . which is a SUPER BIG DEAL.”

First-place winner Kylie Zou said, “It’s really nice to see all the hard work pay off. (The challenge with) MathCounts motivated me to work more.”

These Journey students qualified for MathCounts’ Chapter competition:

• Sixth grade — Dheeren Pammina.

• Seventh grade — Esteban Jerez, Kylie Zou, Ike Farounbi, Neil Dube, Ananya Bhovi, Rachel Harris, Ivy Zhang and Rohan Sahoo.

• Eighth grade — Aryana Baria, Charvisri Donthula, Tran Ngo, Austin Zhu and Grace Mehta.

See MATHCOUNTS Page 7A

Math Team members from Journey Middle School who qualified for state-level competition with MathCounts are Kylie Zou, from left, Tran Ngo, teacher sponsor Mrinal Joshi, Esteban Jerez, Austin Zhu and Dheeren Pammina.

“What a proud moment for a Journey Jag,” Joshi said. “I’m ecstatic by my Math Team students’ hard work, dedication and commitment at MathCounts Chapter competition.”

MathCounts presents Individual Awards to the top 8 students overall from grades 6-8 combined. “From 8 individual awards, Journey grabbed 5. WOW!” Joshi said.

Students who will represent Journey at state MathCounts competition are Kylie Zou, first place; Tran Ngo, second place; Esteban Jerez, third place; Austin Zhu, sixth place; and Dheeren Pammina, eighth place. Sixth-graders Zou, Jerez and Pammina competed against eighth-graders with higher math training.

For Team Awards, the team’s score is calculated by dividing the sum of the team members’ individual scores by four. Then, add two times the number of Team Round questions answered correctly. The maximum possible team score is 66.

Journey claimed second place. The top two teams advance to state.

The Countdown Round focuses on speed and accuracy. The top 8 individual winners compete with 45 seconds maximum per problem without a calculator. Students use a buzzer to answer first. Kylie Zou earned first place.

MathCounts has increasing difficulty because sixth- through eighth-graders take the same test, which becomes more difficult as it progresses. The Sprint Round has 30 questions.

Third-place winner Esteban Jerez said, “MathCounts was challenging. I learned a lot. Most importantly, I learned that speed matters a lot.” Student Wylie Savage said, “MathCounts is a fun way to compete against friends.”

Student Neil Dube enjoyed “the struggle of MathCounts questions.” Ike Farounbi found MathCounts fun and challenging simultaneously.

“My students’ success is my success. I’m always their biggest fan,” Joshi said.