Bob Jones places 18th in national math contest

Bob Jones High School has some of the best high-school mathematicians in the country, as demonstrated by their 18th-place finish in the 2011 Four-by-Four Competition, a national mathematics contest administered by National Assessment & Testing.

Coaches Kimberly Cox and Shaun Bardell prepared students for this contest, in which teams of four participated in ten three-minute rounds in which they attempted to answer four questions.

This effectively gave each student three minutes to answer one problem, but the team must also decide who will work each problem and whether their time would be better spent checking one another’s work on easier and more familiar problems or if they should attempt to answer all four questions.

After results from schools across the country were double-checked, the team of Simon Lieu, Wayne You, Kenneth Fu, and Claire Zhang had the highest score at Bob Jones, helping their school to place 18th overall among the top schools in the country.

Bob Jones High School will be participating in National Assessment & Testing’s next contest, the 2011 Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest, from April 13th to April 20th.

This contest allows a team to collaborate for one week on fifteen difficult and complicated problems, and rewards real-world problem-solving skills such as brainstorming, collaboration, research and the application of technology.

National Assessment & Testing administers high-quality mathematics competitions that schools can participate in through the mail.  Their contests span a variety of formats, including individual and team tests, as well as a variety of difficulties, from an easier 100 problems in 30 minutes to 15 more complicated problems in one week.