While people were enjoying a Saturday filled with college football, the math club at RBHS headed to St. Louis, Missouri to compete at the Excellence in Mathematics contest. Two of the five Bruins who competed placed at the contest including senior Alain Chen, receiving first place along with a $1000 scholarship. Sophomore Boon Palipatana placed sixth in his grade level.
“It feels really great cause I didn’t really expect to win, and it’s really intended for St. Louis kids, but I won it,” Chen said. “I attended weekly meetings with all the other members in the club to prepare and also did this online competition which really helped.”
Nearly 700 students participated in this competition, completing 30 math questions ascending in difficult. Palipatana said other than getting to know the type of questions that could show up on the quiz, he also stressed getting enough sleep and a healthy breakfast before the competition.
“Although the questions given at a math competition don’t relate much to the real world, the work needed to compete is great practice for the work we will all need to do throughput our lives,” Palipatana said. “I am just overall happy I placed sixth in this because all the work before paid dividends.”
Club sponsor Kevin Taylor said he was very proud of all his students, and he has enjoyed seeing them make math such an important part of their lives.
“Both Alain and Boon regularly attend math team meetings and competitions, which I think keeps their skills sharp,” Taylor said. “The quiz is not so easy because you get four points for a correct answer but get taken off a point for the wrong answer.”
Chen said getting the thousand dollars was worth all the time he has spent preparing.
“It’s awesome because I can contribute that money to my future,” Chen said. “I will either use it for college tuition or just books needed for school or college.”
By Harsh Singh