ISMTF Senior Math Competition

Munich, Germany

February 28-March 1, 2009

This is the t-shirt design from this year's competition - it was also a Sunday Chase problem! They had to write the equations to make the pretzel shape appear in quadrant 1 on their calculators - everyone else needed two equations to make this happen, but Amanda did it with only one!

This year the team went to Munich, Germany, so on Friday there was a tour of the city for all the teams. This is the town hall in the main square with some of our team waiting to go - Amanda is the colorful one and Young is smiling for the camera! Sonya was along on this trip as a chaperone - it was great to be able to see first hand what Amanda has loved for so long!

But even before that - our team arrived in Munich on Thursday night and stayed in the hotel all together that first night. Mr. Krieckhaus, the coach, suggested a short practice of about 40 minutes after we all went out to dinner that night - after 2.5 hours the adults had to ask to stop as it was after 11 pm! The kids were willing to keep going!

Then finally on Saturday the competition gets under way!

Here's what the competition room looks like - Amanda is in red on the far side wall to the left of under the scoreboard. There were 170 students competing for the honors in the individual rounds...

The questions waited on a bench at the front of the room - individual rounds above and team rounds below... Sonya saw all the questions, even graded the individual rounds (there is a team of graders who do this as the day goes on and I was part of that team for individual and part of the team that proctors - called invigilating - during the team rounds), but don't ask her to do any of them!

Amanda ready to get started - her school mate Rafal is behind her (he was on a different one of the 3 teams from ISB who competed this year).

The competition gets under way - they are all really concentrating!

This is the competition room re-arranged for the team round. ISB brought 3 teams. First team was Amanda, Young, and Sim (Young is in the green shirt in above picture, Amanda and Sim are at table with him). Second team was Sam, Yuki, and Christine. Third team was Rafal, Keun Hong, and Shin. Talking is allowed and encouraged during this part of the competition. In total, 57 teams were competing for the top spots.

Amanda, Sim, and Young just before they get under way.

Here they are working on their questions - notice the caiman, named Caiman, that Amanda brings to every math competition (since 7th grade!). It migrated around the table to Sim and back to Amanda and just keeps moving...

Good thing this is the team round or Sim would be in trouble for copying Amanda.

Right after the team competition, Amanda is whisked away for an individual tiebreaker! This means she is in the top 11 students, but they don't tell where within that group - the two tied must answer more questions until the tie is broken. Amanda and one very large guy (to be seen in a few pictures down from here) are taken away to a room to compete. He seems very confident going in, looking down at his small competition and seeming to think he can crush her. She was not worried. When they came out, it was she looking very confident and happy and him looking at his coach like "how could that little girl beat me?!"

And now it is Sunday. The Sunday Chase is complete and the kids await the results in the theater. Here the ISB kids try to relax while they await their fate...

First they announce the Top 20 individual results - Sim comes in tied for 12th place. Excellent!

Amanda takes 5th place! See the large boy next to her - that's who she beat in the tiebreaker. She found out that he plays rugby for his school as well as doing math, but she was able to crush him here.

Amanda waits the top results...

Young takes the individual 2nd place prize!

The top 8 individuals

Then the coveted team awards. ISB went to the competition very hopeful of some high place finishes and with such great individual places their hopes remained high...