Math Olympiad

Ben and I spent Saturday at his Math Olympiad competition.  In Math Olympiad, teams of 3-4 students compete against each other in a long problem and then in several shorter ones in Algebra, Geometry, Number Sense, etc.  We got up bright and early to get to the school where the competition was held.  Here is Ben with his team before it all began.



There were 10 teams from Ben's school participating--which was the more than any other school there.  They've been practicing and preparing all year. 

I volunteered to help, and spent the day entering the teams' scores onto a spreadsheet.  There was a fun group of parents there and it was exciting to see the different scores come in.  Only the top teams get awards--this isn't one of those events that kids get medals for just participating, so the competition was pretty intense. 

Ben went to Math Olympiad last year, and didn't win a medal or a ribbon, so he was really hoping he could get an award this year.

Since I had entered the scores, I knew his team had done well on the long problem, and it was so great to see their faces when their team was announced.  They got an amazing score of 89 percent on the problem, which was the second highest in the competition, and much ahead of most of the others. 

Way to go Ben!  Ben loves math, and is good at it.  I'm glad he has a teacher that has made math so fun for him this year.  He's so proud of that medal.