On October 11th, the Mass Academy Math Team headed to Shrewsbury High School for their first math competition of the year. Alex Kaneko, Rianna Santra, and Jenny Shaughnessy, three seniors who scored perfectly at the first Worcester County Mathematics League (WOCOMAL) competition this season, share their insights.

While it was the first meet of the season, interest in competing this year seems strong; “We were at Shrewsbury High School and the whole cafeteria was completely filled to the point that there had to be multiple people per table in order to have the math meet,” says Santra, a math team captain, “It's pretty fun, and I hope that there's the same amount of people who come back for the next couple of meets as well.” 

Mass Academy students performed well, with eight students landing perfect scores on three, three-question exams throughout the competition. Subjects ranged from Set Theory to Polynomial Equations, each question familiar to students after long preparation and weekly Mass Academy Math Team practices. 

For Kaneko, a passion for problem-solving made performing well at WOCOMAL a result of motivated self-preparation, “I did a lot of math competitions in middle and high school. I really enjoyed it so it was easy to stay motivated. I improved mostly through self-studying: read AoPS [Art of Problem Solving] books and did a lot of math contest problems."

For all three, improvement in math meets came with preparation and a passion for numbers. “I personally think practices are more fun than math meets, but it's satisfying to see where you improve,” says Shaughnessy, “like last year, for example, I remember getting a 9/18 for the first meet... polynomial equations.” At the first meet, Shaughnessy placed first in Worcester County, a huge win for the Mass Academy Math Team.

In the future, Shaughnessy hopes to study computer science with a focus on robotics, or a related math-heavy field. Santra hopes to double major in computer science and math, and Kaneko hopes to do something involving computer science, math, and “hopefully something fun and stimulating!” For all three, their technical skills in math and their passion and drive for improvement can bring them back for an exciting future in the field of mathematics.