The math club competed in the 2nd round of the Mandelbrot Competition on December 3.
According to club co-president Gyubin Jang, there are 5 rounds of the competition, with one round being completed each month, starting in November. Each round of the competition is made up of a 40 minute timed test comprised of 7 questions. The club took the test at Campolindo.
There are 2 levels of the competition: national and regional. The national-level test is harder. Math Club member Cary Huang said, while he scored 12 out of 14 on a regional test last year, he scored much lower on a national test this year.
“I think they did well on it, better than the 1st round,” said Jang. “People expect better because it’s the 2nd round.”
According to Huang, the reason many people find the test difficult is because test-takers “have to think about it [a problem] on the spot.”
The results of the whole competition will be available at the end of the school year on http://www.mandelbrot.org/scores.html. There, test-takers’ overall scores and their ranking against other test-takers from other schools are posted.
Jang said the club prepares for the competition by solving problems from previous years’ tests. In addition to preparing for the Mandelbrot competition, club members give presentations, according to Jang. According to club co-president Charlotte Chen, examples of presentation subjects include encryption and the math behind proofs.
In addition to the Mandelbrot Competition, the club also competes in the Stanford Math Tournament and the Berkeley Math Tournament in the spring.
