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Practice is the Right Equation

Practice is the Right Equation

Motivated students plus hard work equals a winning equation when it comes to the Math Olympiad.

“The tests are designed to get progressively harder,” said SMS student Leo. “At the end of the year, we add up our scores and we can earn awards and recognition for how we did.”

25 Students from Somers Intermediate School (SIS) as well as 25 students from Somers Middle School (SMS) competed in the 2023-2024 Elementary and Middle School Mathematical Olympiad. These Somers students participated alongside approximately 80,000 students from across the globe. The Math Olympiad challenges and encourages students to further develop their problem-solving, critical thinking, and math strategy skills.

“It feels good to be a part of something,” said Noah, an SMS student. “You’re doing math that’s more challenging than you’re doing in your current classes.”

Students engaged in a comprehensive series of five monthly tests from November through March. Each 30-minute test had five questions to give students an overall score out of 25 for the year. Students tackled intricate and complex problems while challenging themselves to do their best.

“Some strategies you could use were trial and error, computation, logic, and reading comprehension to understand the question,” said Charlotte, an SIS student. “I like working in groups and practicing because then you can learn other people’s strategies.”

SIS students worked with Mrs. King to learn and practice different strategies for solving a variety of math problems. She started by assigning a math packet of the previous year’s questions to the students to work on over the summer. Students then met regularly throughout the year to practice new questions and review their answers to help them decide how to work through each problem.

“As an educator, my foremost goal is to create an environment that fosters creativity, analytical thinking, collaboration, and a growth mindset,” Mrs. King said.

SMS students worked with Mrs. Olinto throughout the year. They came together after school at Math Club and occasionally during their W.I.N. periods to practice questions, review answers, work in groups, and learn new strategies for working through the problems. The five monthly tests were taken during their W.I.N. period.

"At SMS, participating in the Math Olympiad Contest is completely optional. The students who participated were a shining example of what an SMS student is expected to be—a reflective, open-minded, inquirer, who is willing to take risks while engaging in challenging tasks,” said Mrs. Olinto.

“Usually, the questions were a combination of mathematics and logical reasoning,” said SMS student Derek. “They involved calculations and sometimes algebra, but you also had to think them through to figure out how to solve them.”

SIS students demonstrated exceptional performance, ranking in the top 10% globally. Nicholas Pogosov (SIS) and Leo Mundis (SMS) both placed first for their schools and scored in the top 2% out of all 80,000 participants. Congratulations to all Somers students for their hard work, dedication, and incredible accomplishments.

“It’s fun because when you’re done you get to see how you did and then you get to improve on it for the next year,” said Nicholas, an SMS student.

“I enjoyed competing in something that I put work into but that I didn’t have to stress about,” said SIS student Victoria. “I could challenge myself and compete against other people too.”

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