“You may begin, 40 minutes has started,” the competition host announced. As soon as her words came out, 48 mathletes furiously scribbled equations and wrote answers on the answer sheet. The only sound you could hear in the auditorium was the scratches of pencil on paper, and nervous tapping of feet.
40 minutes later, all students let out a heavy sigh, as they leaned back in their chairs.
This was day one of the Mathcounts Competition 2018. Eight mathletes from AES – Jaeha, Aarav, Sagar, Yubin, Marin, Rahul, Nikita, Ronan – went to the Cairo, Egypt, to compete in a bee-style math competition. Five other schools from Chennai, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Cairo also participated.
There was a total of 4 rounds; sprint, target, team, and countdown. To participate in the countdown round, mathletes had to make it into the Top 10 out of 48 students depending on the scores from the sprint and target rounds. Three students from our school, Jaeha, Yubin, and Sagar, made it into the top 10, and received 1st, 8th, and 10th place, respectively.
AES split into two teams in groups of four, and one of the teams received first place. Although the other team did not make it into the Top 3, they came fourth place with a difference of 0.25 points to the third place team.
First Place in Team Round Photo Credit: Mr. Fumi
But apart from the competition, there was another thing that the students were excited about…and that was the visit to the Pyramids. As the bus got nearer to the worldwide known tourist site, students’ gaped in surprise and astonishment on how big the pyramids were. With a base of 440 by 230 meters, and a height of 139 meters, it was an amazing sight. Not only did they see the pyramids, but they also saw the sphinx, and went to a souk (market) that was over a 1000 years old. All of the participants also got to eat Egyptian food on a boat while on the Nile River.
In Front of the Pyramids, Photo Credit: Mr. Fumi
The Nile River, Photo Credit: Mr. Fumi
By the end of the trip, everyone was proud of their success in MathCounts, and felt that they had done their best. “When I look back at the trip, I feel like I got to know everyone more and got united by facing one big challenge together as a team of AES,” said Marin. Just as Marin said, MathCounts was a great opportunity to grow, meet new people, and make friends.