MORRISTOWN, NJ — Morristown High School’s math team was the top performer in the county this year, regaining a title they’d previously won in 2021 and 2022.
This team of 15-20 students meets once a week during lunch, and participates in the New Jersey Math League High School Contest throughout the year.
This competition is a series of six exams (contests) given from October through March, said teacher Christiana Kemp, who is one of the advisors along with Marina Bragina.
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MHS had a final score of 148 points after those exams, putting them top of the 16 Morris County teams that competed in April. Team member Shriram V. was also one of the individual high scorers.
Overall, Morristown placed seventh in the state out of more than 150 teams. Bridgewater-Raritan High School (166) and Dunellen High School (161) were the top two scorers.
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One of the other top scorers, senior salutatorian Elizabeth Gillen, said the contests are “a fun way to challenge ourselves mathematically” and usually require more problem-solving skills than math problems inside the classroom.
“The fast moving curriculum of high school math classes prevents an in-depth exploration of the intricacies of mathematics, and math teams allows us to fill in some of the gaps,” Gillen said.
And even though this year’s team has the high school valedictorian and salutatorian among the students, Kemp said the only requirement for joining is that students “love math.”
“Anyone who wants to pursue problems and learn to think deeply can join the math team at Morristown High School,” Kemp told Patch.
Gillen added that the team treats the problems “as puzzles to solve,” rather than putting pressure on themselves to perform well.
“Math team is a really amazing club where a bunch of ‘math nerds’ can come together and explore some really interesting problems,” she said.
Click here to see the full results of the New Jersey Mathematics League contest.
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