The Niles West Math Team competed at the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) Math Regional Competition held on Feb. 24. The ICTM is an annual competition held between multiple math teams from various high schools in Illinois and this event has been hosted at Niles West for the past few years.

The ICTM competition is broken down into multiple smaller competitions where students compete in. The competition begins when all the students take a test based on their grade level, each grade level focuses on a specific area in math. The freshmen team focuses on Algebra I, sophomores take a test consisting of geometry, juniors take an Algebra II test and seniors take a pre-calculus test. That’s one of the events the students participate in, then there are other events like an eight-person calculator team, an eight-person team of freshmen and sophomores working together and a team of juniors and seniors. The most competitive competition is the two-person event where freshmen and sophomores pair up and juniors and seniors pair up. The pairs go against other pairs from their grade level to solve difficult math problems ranging in all different fields.

The Niles West math team placed third overall with many students also going to state for winning first or second place in one of the competitions. The students who qualified for state are freshman Kc Embers, sophomores Muhammad Ammar, Jacob Kawako and Vraj Patel and junior John Montgomery. Junior Antony Mui and senior Asma Patel qualified as the regional champions.

Patel and Mui both won first place in the junior and senior pair competition.

“Anthony and I competed in the junior-senior two-person contest, in which one junior and one senior work together to answer 10 questions while racing against the other two-person teams. You have three minutes to answer each question and only one chance to answer. Answering in the first minute gives you six points, the second minute is four points, and the third minute is three points, but you also want to be the first team in the room to get the question for a bonus of two points. The team with the most points wins,” Patel said.

Time is a huge factor during the competition as students must manage their time well to ensure that they answer all the questions.

“The most challenging part of a math meet is that I have a tendency to make silly, stupid mistakes under time pressure. Time affects us all differently, and doing math in a more relaxed environment with a semi-reasonable amount of time is much easier than rushing through a problem trying to beat everyone else. Everything is nervewracking because you can see everyone else, and that causes mistakes,” Mui said.

While math competitions can seem stressful and challenging, students on the team enjoy them just as much.

“The enjoyable part (aside from winning, that’s always fun) of this meet was just being able to be around people that we can bounce ideas off of. We’re a pretty close bunch. I have found a bunch of friends from math team and we can discuss math and other topics together. There are some people in math team that discuss ideas that make zero sense to me. And that’s great! Being able to find a community that accepts you and shares ideas, that’s enjoyable,” Mui said.

The math team spends a lot of time preparing for these competitions. The Math director and one of the math team coaches Lucas Leavenworth explains how most of the team’s skills are acquired through intense practice.

“A lot of the preparation is just practice, especially if you want to get faster. A lot of the coaches will provide questions from the past contests and competitions and if we have a specific topic, we will kind of create some lessons based around those topics and do some more traditional teaching,” Leavenworth said.

Math team is a place for all students and they are encouraged to join especially if they are interested in doing math.

“Math team is open to everybody and we are always looking for new people. Obviously, it’s better if you like it and want to do it but we are wide open and there are no limitations on the size,” Leavenworth said.

Patel has been on the math team for almost three years at Niles West and she has truly enjoyed her experience.

“I was on math team freshman and sophomore year, and now senior year. I love math and this club is a way for me to learn more about it while having some. I love the people on the team, the coaches and the chill environment, so it’s made my experience at West so much better,” Patel said.

Niles West wishes good luck to all the math team students competing at the state competition this April!