Results Are In!!!

Finally, the results from the HMMT are in! We placed 27th! The HMMT is considered to be the hardest and most prestigious tournament in the world. We competed against 145 teams from around the world (which means there were about 800 students competing at the tournament) and we placed higher in the top 40 than we did last year. We are strong and growing stronger!

In addition, William Zheng, placed 47th individually. The top 50 individuals in the tournaments are called "Alphas", so we are very proud to have an Alpha of our own! Over the last month as we prepared specifically for this tournament, William has been an encourager and a guide for the entire team. He is a leader in every regard.

In my opinion, the students seem to have more fun at the HMMT than any other tournament. They are removed from their ordinary lives as we travel to Boston; they bond as a group in a way that isn't possible with local tournaments; the problems are creative and challenging; and they get the chance to evaluate their own abilities against the world. Walton High School is a unique environment and I wouldn't change a thing; but my students' perspectives on their own abilities is tainted by the fact that they are working with peers who are equally motivated and capable. To be able to view themselves in an environment that has more diversity in motivation and talents gives my students a different perspective, especially at such a well-respected tournament.

As we move away from this tournament and toward the rest of our season, I am especially thankful for students who are motivated to prepare and work well together for a common goal. I'm thankful for parents who support our adventures in every way possible and I'm thankful for a supportive school that is also so proud of our accomplishments!

Now... time to prepare for Lassiter's tournament...

HMMT Pictures

What an awesome weekend it was. We did amazing in the competition and had a great weekend bonding with friends. I was on this trip last year and I can honestly say that I had as much or even more fun than last year. I could not imagine spending this weekend with any other group of kids and teachers! This was an amazing experience and I can not wait till next year.

This is the link to the pictures taken on my camera. If you want me to delete a picture of you that you do not want people to see, please let me know by emailing me at akshat.sistla314@gmail.com !

Photos:
https://goo.gl/photos/VmUvuBtf3JiPP6MEA

I also wanted to say thank you to Mrs. Speer and Mrs. West for coming with us on this trip. It was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had.  I believe I am speaking for everyone when I say that we are grateful for everything you guys have done for us and the Walton Math Team.

A Strong Finish

It's the end of competition day and we are exhausted -- pleased, but exhausted. The morning was the general test and then the theme test. Both of those are individual tests and go toward the individual placements. We really have no idea right now how our players placed but I'm expecting strong scores. Late morning was the first team round. Our players felt the test was similar in type and difficulty to the tests we had studied. After lunch was the GUTS round. Unlike most tournaments, this round is live. From the coaches room we can watch the leaderboard as the scores come in. We can't see our players but we can see how they compare minute to minute with the other teams. That experience is both fascinating and nerve wracking! We ultimately finished on the leaderboard in 14th place! While we don't know the specific place of our second team, we did have time to study the leaderboard and estimate their placement. It appears they were near 27th place.

So, is that good? Let me give you some perspective. There were 149 teams competing from around the world. Most of the teams are from private schools, many specifically math and science schools for gifted children. There are also a significant number of regional teams, teams that require students to compete for a spot and they train for a significant amount of time. There are very few public high schools represented. Our students held their own amongst very stiff competition.

I'm so proud of our team! Our goal was to come in a little higher than last year. While I don't know for sure yet, I'm certain we met our goal! I'm looking forward to what this team is going to do this year! Here is a link to our live feed in the coaches room today!  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1182104708532226&id=100001981233267

Mrs. Speer

Coaches' Hour

Just spent the most inspiring hour of any math tournament in my coaching career, a talk by Po-Shen Loh, a math professor at Carnegie Mellon.He spoke about the need to teach students how to think as opposed to just working problems. He discussed the lost art of thinking and gave specifics of how to ignite a desire to solve problems in my students. I was encouraged that much of what I do is spot on and he gave me some good ideas about how to extend what I am doing.

He had some interesting insights into what makes a college student successful and how I can make a student's transition to college math smoother. Well worth the time!

-- Mrs. Speer

Mit Mini Events

After we came back from the MIT Museum of Science and Technology, the kids gathered in the lobby to play One Night. The seniors on the team taught the freshman how to play. Interesting fact: it takes a long time to learn One Night. After all the fun and games we went upstairs to change into thick clothing because it was supposed to feel like 17 degrees on the way back from the event.

It took 6 minutes to walk to the MIT campus where we ate pizza while Mrs. Speer and Mrs. West were getting the HMMT T-Shirts and registering us. After eating we split into groups for the different activities they had planned. One batch of kids went to do planks while solving math problems. Another group participated in a trading activity and placed 2nd out of all the groups that participated. Russell bravely went to the estimation game on his own where he met some competitors from around the country. He and his new friends placed second. After all the activities were completed, the group that placed in the trading game (William, Nathan, Shini, and Jumshaid) decided to give part of their price (Two $25 gift cards to Amazon) to Mrs. Speer and Mrs. West. We walked back to the hotel around 9:30 pm. We bought some snacks at the local grocery store and headed off to our rooms for the night!

-- Akshat Sistla

First Stop, MIT

We arrived in Boston about 12:30 pm. It was a long flight but everyone was very excited about being here. We rode the subway to the closest station to the hotel, and a quick walk to the hotel. The subway was an adventure, for sure!  I'm thinking that it was a first for some of my team! But we made it safely and together.

The hotel is lovely and we were able to drop off our bags, but we were hungry so we headed out to find lunch. By the way, table for fifteen is not fun to find.  We all found something to eat then we headed off to the MIT Museum of Science and Technology. Call us "geeks" if you wish but we loved, loved, loved the museum. There was an entire section of 3-D kinetic art and we spent almost the entire time there.

Now we are back for a quick regrouping before the mini events at MIT tonight.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The bags aren't packed yet, but we certainly have done a lot of planning for our upcoming trip. Believe it or not, tomorrow morning we set out for Cambridge, MA, and Harvard's campus! Last night Harvard tournament team sent out the brochure for the tournament which includes the list of all of our competitors. Looks like we will be facing a lot of the same teams we faced last year. We are coming in strong this year and have high hopes of placing better than we did last year (which was 35th). Over the next few days we will keep you posted about our adventures at the HMMT!

Fall Elementary MathFest

Yesterday we held our fourth Elementary MathFest! About 50 fourth- and fifth-grade students from across Cobb County participated in the tournament.  We had a great time with a computation round, a ciphering round, and a problem-solving test. While the scores were being tallied, the students played some estimation games. It really was a fun day!

Our top ten winners were David Fu, Sabrina Xing, Mehul Goel, Marko Vukasinovic, Sean Boothman, Karthik Jayaram, Anika Viswanathan, Bayan El Abbadi, Owen Murphy, and Varnika Dalal.

Cobb County Fall Tournament 2016

On Monday afternoon, October 24, we boarded the bus and headed to Wheeler High School for our first Cobb County tournament of the school year. Thirty-four of our competitors played for Walton that evening. Just two years ago the entire math team might have 34 members, but last year and this year our membership has topped out near 60 competitors!

Lots of things went wrong Monday evening. Our pizza dinner arrived 25 minutes late and we waited for 20 minutes for our Dickerson team to join us (just a miscommunication), but everyone was excited for our first chance to compete and the things that went wrong were just an annoyance. In the final analysis, 30 students competed for Varsity and 4 students competed for Junior Varsity. We don't have the JV scores yet, but the Varsity scores came out on Thursday and our team ranked first in the county! A great start to the Cobb County season!

2016-2017 Season Begins

This season has started out with a roar! Walton's Math Team competed at UGA this past Saturday, October 23. We took three teams which we cleverly named Walton A, Walton B and Walton C (I clearly have a gift in naming teams). The Walton A team placed 5th in the competition and two of our students (Russell Emerine and Daniel Shu) placed individually in the top 40. Jumshaid Yamin placed 41st -- just out of the top 40.

The competition was our first of the season and we have certainly started strong!

Russell Emerine, Kevin Wu, Arvind Saligrama, Eashan Gandotra,
Saahil Sharma, Jayson Wu, and Khurram Yamin