Jenny Hua ‘27
EE Staff Writer
Imagine sitting in a quiet classroom on a Wednesday afternoon, with only pencils scratching and papers flipping to break the silence. However, this is not the test you have been dreading for the past week; this is a math competition. On October 9th, the Trumbull High Math Team participated in its first competition of the year, and that is exactly how room A12 sounded as the competitors scribbled away on scratch paper.
The Math Team has over 20 members and is run by Coach Capo and Coach Seaman, two math teachers at Trumbull High. Practices are held every Wednesday, and they compete online in the Fairfield County Math League (FCML) on the first Wednesday of every month. There are six regular-season matches, starting in October and ending in March. Last year, the team made it to the State Match in April, which means they placed in the top half of the FCML.
Every match consists of six rounds: Arithmetic & Basic Topics, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry & Advanced Topics, and Coordinate Geometry & Discrete Math. Every month, the topic (percentages, systems of equations, etc.) for each round changes, and students pick three rounds per match to solve. They have half an hour to solve three problems per round (nine problems total): one worth one point, one worth two points, and one worth three points.
There is also a ten-minute team round, in which multiple students work together to solve one problem per round. Each of these problems are worth three points and are more difficult than those of the individual rounds. For this round, the Math Team is split into two teams: the A-team and B-team. The A-team consists of six members whose individual and team scores represent the school. This team included Maura Brunt, Jenny Hua, Ted Hughes, Arvind Marthi, Viet Tran, and Richard Xiong for the October match. The B-team consists of everyone else, and their scores do not count. However, these teams can change from match to match, so B-team students can still make the A-team throughout the year.
For their first match, Trumbull High’s Math Team performed rather well. Two A-team members, Xiong and Tran, scored perfect rounds, meaning that they answered all of their questions correctly. The team placed third in the team round and eighth overall out of the 29 schools in the FCML. They are now preparing for their next match on November 6th and looking forward to a successful season. Good luck!
Featured Photos Courtesy: Fairfield County Math League