So... I mentioned going to competition for MathCounts yesterday, and guess what? Me and my team were able to:
-Team: Landed 3rd place out of 7 schools and got trophies for it! Unfortunately, one of our kids left early along with a coach, so we have to give out the last trophy on Monday.
-Individuals/Me: Landed 5th place as a person, but did not beat my first opponent. Warning for anyone who thinks they're good at math; go to a MathCounts competition in the countdown round and get HUMBLED! Some of these kids were getting the answers before the dean even finished speaking. Though I can not disclose any information about the questions, you can look at the link below of previous year's questions for examples:
https://www.mathcounts.org/sites/default/files/2025%20COMPLETE%20Chapter%20Countdown%20-%20FINAL.pdf
-Individuals/Me: Got the highest score in my school with a 16, next closest being 14, 11, 9, etc. What does the score mean? I have no clue! Probably questions right with different weights.
-PnM: One of our kids won the raffle for a pretty good IPad hosted by the competition. This is the second year in a row since last year when a girl I didn't know won the laptop.
-Sociality: Yes I made that word up, but to define it, it means the socialness of a group. Unlike previous years, I knew all of my team members by name, so competition was less stressful during breaks. It was easier to get a count of how well the team did (As I ran most of the statistics seeing if people were on target with the answered:questions ratio) and pep talks were less awkward. From experience, I can say knowing your team can not only boost your mood, but boost our Team round scores (Basically 10 questions, 20 minutes, talk with your table, but only the captian's (Me) test packet matters for the final scores) as we work better together. (Shout out to my individuals team for 25-26! no factorial, not only were they able to help with the questions, but they did help prevent a panic-attack!!)
