This weekend was the fourth annual Math Prize for
Girls competition, which is a math competition for middle and high school
girls. Students qualify for the competition based on AMC scores from the
previous year. I participated in the first three years of the competition, and
this year I was very excited that the competition was held at MIT because I was
able to volunteer!
There are several ways to get into Boston from Olin.
The easiest way is to drive, but then you have to park, which isn’t as simple.
Most people take either the T (Boston’s subway system) or the commuter rail.
Olin isn’t conveniently located for any of the stations, though. It’s between a
mile and a half and two miles from four different commuter rail stations, and
there’s a T station about five miles away. I walked to one of the commuter rail
stations. It’s also pretty normal for emails to go out on a list called helpme
asking for rides.
I left Olin on Friday afternoon and walked to the
Wellesley Hills commuter rail station, which is a twenty or twenty-five minute
walk from the West Hall dorms. I took the train all the way to its last stop –
South Station. I’m really familiar with South Station because the silver line
from the airport runs there. When I got off the train and walked into South
Station, I had to try really hard to contain my excitement. It was so familiar
and comfortable, and I was that much closer to Cambridge.
I spent the summer of 2011 doing research in
Cambridge , which is across the Charles River from Boston and is home to both
MIT and Harvard. This was through a camp called Research Science Institute, or
RSI. I lived on the MIT campus, so I know it and the area surrounding it very
well. Even though I had no interest in MIT, I have lots of friends there, there
are certain spots on campus that I love, and I have favorite restaurants and
stores throughout Cambridge. Going back to Cambridge for the first time since
last February felt like going home.
From South Station, I took the red line T to Kendall
Station, which is in Kendall Square, right by MIT. My first stop was the MIT
student center, or the W20. There’s an ATM there, and I’m used to getting work
done there. I didn’t have any plans until later that evening, so I’d been
planning on sitting in the W20 and working. Soon after I got there, though, as
I was looking for an open seat, I turned around to see three of my friends who
are sophomores at MIT, including Brigitte, whom I call my sister and who was
letting me sleep in her room over the weekend.
I went with them back to their dorm, Random Hall,
which on a map looks like it’s off-campus. (MIT’s campus is not easily defined,
unlike Olin’s.) On the way and at Random, we ran into several people I know –
mostly people from camps. Brigitte, one of the counselors from camp, and I went
to Thelonius Monkfish to get sushi, and then Brigitte and I walked to Math Prize
Games Night.
Games Night first occurred at the second Math Prize,
and it definitely strengthens Math Prize. Before Games Night, Math Prize was
just a contest in the morning, a lunch, and then an awards ceremony. Girls
might talk before the contest or during lunch, but most people only talked to
competitors they knew already. Games Night is two hours of food, board and card
games, and it gives time for the competitors to actually talk to each other and
meet new people as well as for reunions.
Games Night was Part 1 of the Mathcamp reunion.
There were about a dozen Mathcampers, both contestants and volunteers, there. I
met the 2011 and 2012 campers who were competing, and I also met a 2012 staff
member. We told Mathcamp stories from a wide range of years, pressed each
other’s noses (Mathcampers have nosefunctions!), played card games, and ate
lots of yummy chocolate and fruit.
After Games Night, a group of us walked back to Random.
There, we played word games (I think that night it was the one where you find
the midpoint of words) and Bananagrams before going to bed. Brigitte hosted
three of us, one competitor and two volunteers.
The next day was the contest! I was helping with
grading, so I didn’t have to go over to the academic buildings until 11:45.
Most people either proctored or helped with registration, and they had to be in
the academic buildings between 8:30 and 9:00. I got up with the others and went
to the W20, where I ate breakfast, sat on the first floor in my favorite RSI
spot, and did reading for anthropology. It
was Saturday morning, so I didn’t think many people would up, but I posted on
the RSI 2011 Facebook group anyway, hoping that maybe someone would stop by and
say hi. Within ten minutes, one of the Rickoids who had been in both my
counselor group and my tutor group came by, and we talked and worked. (He had
an essay to write.)
Grading for Math Prize isn’t very difficult. There
are four versions of the test with the questions scrambled. There were twelve
graders, so we split into four groups of three. All exams were graded by at
least two people; if the student had a potentially award-winning score, three
people graded the paper. There are twenty questions, and the competitors write
in their answers – it’s not a proof contest. The answer is either right or
wrong. We say we’ll only take certain forms, but to a certain extent we’re
lenient about that. If the question asked for a + sqrt(b) and a student wrote
sqrt(b) + a, we accepted that, but if the question asked for a/b and the
student wrote a mixed number, we marked the answer as incorrect.
In past years it has seemed like grading took a
while, but it went really quickly this year – we were done less than forty
minutes after the exams arrived. We spent the time before the exams arrived
eating lunch and talking. The graders were a really wide range of ages – long-established
math coaches and teachers to a junior in high school (Brigitte’s brother).
The awards ceremony started at 1:45 with a
performance by one of MIT’s a cappella groups, the Logarhythms, and a group of
MIT cheerleaders. The medals from the 2011 Math Prize Olympiad (a follow up
competition to MPfG) were presented, and then there were opening speakers,
including Stephen Wolfram and Tom Leighton. The keynote speaker was Esther
Duflo, an MIT professor of economics. She talked about the economics of
poverty, like whether mosquito nets should be provided for free or if they’re
more likely to be put to the best use if people have to pay for them.
After that, there was a round onstage to break ties.
When people tie, they all split the cash prizes evenly, but the tie breaks
determine who gets which trophies. The tiebreaking problems are easier than the
majority of the test problems, so it’s pretty normal for audience members to
work out the problems, too. After that, they handed out awards to everyone who
got a score of nine or above. Nines or tens were honorable mention, and there
were around twenty of those. Five people tied for eighth with scores of 11, two
people tied for sixth with 12s, two people tied for fourth with 13s, two tied
for second with 14s, and the winner had a 15. (I graded the 15!)
The winner was Victoria Xia, an eleventh grader who
goes to Thomas Jefferson (TJ) in Virginia. The people who tied for second were
Danielle Wang and Julia Huang, who were second and third place last year, too.
The top three (Danielle won the tie) were the same as last year. Danielle was
actually the winner two years ago and I think second place in the first year of
Math Prize, as well. Both Danielle and Julia are 10th graders. The
two girls who tied for fourth are both ninth graders. That means that everyone
in the top five should be back next year!
I really hope I can volunteer again next year; I definitely enjoyed grading and being at the awards ceremony!
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