It all added up for students of The Mirman School, which made its first appearance at the Linwood Howe Math Olympiads Tournament in Culver City on Saturday, and earned the first-place team trophy, scoring 56 points out of a possible 80, and beating second-place Farragut Elementary School of Culver City by eight.
The Brentwood school for gifted children sent a pair of teams composed of fourth- and fifth-graders. One of those teams walked away with three individual medals and the first-place team trophy.
In the individual competition, Mirman’s Kevin Shao took the second-place medal with a score of nine out of 10. Also proving themselves among the region’s top math students were Mirman’s Anthony Pineci, who tied for third, and Sarah Gonzalez, who tied for the fourth-place medal. Teammates Ethan Villarama and Rane Tseng helped Shao, Gonzalez and Pineci clinch the team trophy for Mirman. Also representing Mirman was the team of Alex Choi, Brandon Broukhim, Calyx Liu, Mason O’Connor and Rachel Madhogarhia.
The Linwood Howe Math Olympiads Tournament is the regional, year-end competition for elementary school students in the international Mathematics Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schoolers (MOEMS) series. Hosted by Linwood E. Howe Elementary School, the fourth edition of the annual Math Olympiads Tournament attracted 125 competitors from 16 schools and eight school districts in Southern California.
The students, known as “mathletes,” compete first in an individual round, with 10 word problems to be solved in 30 minutes. Each correct solution is worth one point. Next, teams of five students spend 20 minutes attempting to solve 10 more word problems. Each correct team solution nets three points. Ties are broken in both rounds by introducing one new question at a time, and whoever solves the problem first is declared the winner.
