For many kids in high school, math is just a class. A new group of Pride students will be taking this challenge to a whole new level in Moody’s Mega Math (M3) Challenge.
The M3 is an online competition in which a team of juniors and seniors compete with the rest of the nation. Each team can have anywhere from three to five members and a coach. Wendell Bernard Barnwell the Third will be the coach for this year’s team.
“This is a new math competition that has emerged along the East Coast over the past seven years,” said Barnwell. “It has applied-mathematics with real-life application of high-level math techniques.”
The Moody’s Math Challenge will take place the weekend of March 3. Over the course of the weekend, participants can choose to start whenever they feel ready. The test will last fourteen hours and will include one realistic applied mathematics problem.
Following the competition, Ph.D certified judges will undergo three rounds of grading. Teams will learn of the results in the following month.
“Considering this is the first year, I feel like we’re most likely going to lose,” said Barnwell. “It won’t stop me from trying, though.”
A big motivator for some students is the fact that the competition has no entrance fee. The M3will be rewarding top teams and honorable mentions with rewards ranging from $1,000 to $20,000. The math challenge will give out a total of $115,000 by the end of the competition.
“I really need the money for college,” said Alan Koruth, junior. “I don’t have much experience with math competitions, but I hope to coast past the competition on luck and the skills I have collected in my calculus and statistics classes.”
Students will be able to use any free available resource to solve the problem. They may not consult their coach during the testing time.
For all interested students, registration ends on February 24.
“We will be reviewing past problems that were released online,” said Barnwell. “We’ll look at different topics and get an accurate assessment of the team’s strength, so we can work on the weaknesses of the team and then continue from there.”
