Scarsdale High School's Math Team Comes Out Top in County

Kudos to the Scarsdale High School Math Team who won first place in the Westchester County Math League on Monday March 4. This league consists of teams from 24 school districts in Westchester County. The teams meet monthly to solve challenging and intriguing math problems. Individuals and teams earn points based on the number of problems they solve correctly.

Nine students from the Scarsdale High School math team qualified to participate in the New York State Math League competition which will be held on Saturday, April 13. To qualify for this competition, students must show a high level of achievement on monthly Westchester county math meets.

The nine Scarsdale students are: Rebecca Agustin, Michael Bogaty, Chenyi Gong, Cherie Hu, Connie Lam, Alexander Lin, Koji Shiromoto, David Wang, and Felicia Xu.

The New York State Math League (NYSML) is a math competition for teams in New York State. It is held every spring at a different location. This year the contest will be held at Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York. About thirty teams, consisting of 15 students each, gather to compete in Individual, Team, Relay and Power races.

We asked Math Club Advisor Laura Estersohn about the team's preparation and the competition and here is what she shared:

"The students on this year's team enjoy problem solving and enjoy being together. They prepare for competitions by solving practice problems and explaining the solutions to each other. The team also encourages underclassmen to join and progress at thier own level and pace in a low-pressure environment. Over time, their problem-solving skills really improve. The math questions in these competitions reward clever thinking as much as straight-ahead mathematics. Students are able to join the math team starting in ninth grade since the questions are designed to mesh with a high school curriculum. As the year progresses, more topics are added."

Good luck to the team on April 13 at Byram Hills.