Being in Honors Algebra 2 as a 6th grader is unbelievable, but that is exactly what junior Anthony Mui did. Mui is now the Illinois State Champion for Algebra 2 and competed at the ICTM (Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics) state, where the best math team students in Illinois compete with one another.
To prepare himself for the ICTM finals, Mui has spent up to two or three times per week in the math team room. Practices consist of doing a previous contest in any topic. But aside from that, Mui has a group chat with a plethora of students on the math team where they share techniques, strategies and problems.
During the actual contest, it’s a very stressful environment. Time is often an issue with the contest lasting around 5 hours. As for West’s math team, they qualified 19 people for state.
“The meet is a very stressful environment and it is really easy to get intimidated by some really good schools, and then impostor syndrome sets in. That’s a more general fear/challenge, but getting over it requires remembering what you’re good at and then gaining some confidence in yourself. During the contest, the strategy for not getting overwhelmed is to breathe,” Mui said.
Mui does a lot of work both during his practice time and on his own. He was an oralist for the math team this year, and even though he wasn’t able to compete against the other juniors during the regular season, he participated and practiced every day.
“During our junior team practice, he works through complicated problems, discusses work and solving methods with other students, and also brainstorms alternative ways to approach challenging problems. His ability to remember and apply mathematical theorems is unmatched. This is reflected in his perfect paper for the ICTM State Finals,” math teacher Kimberly Hansen said.
To get himself where he is today, Mui benefited from some teachers around preschool through the third grade who pushed him to this point. Mui has been involved with numbers and math for a long time, and his family has worked with his middle school so that he’s been able to get the math resources that he needs. Additionally, as a 7th grader, Mui learned about West having a math team from one of his teachers which sparked his interest to join-and he did.
“His love for math was very evident both in and out of the classroom. Anthony became a part of the math team before he was even eligible to compete. He would attend all practices and competitions despite knowing his scores wouldn’t count. What sets Anthony apart from his peers is not only his uniquely brilliant mind and deep aptitude for understanding high-level mathematics but also his humility and kindness. He not only understands incredibly complex mathematics but can explain it clearly and articulately to any audience. He is truly one of a kind!” math teacher Hetal Shah said.
Aside from math, Mui has been a member of the Scholastic Bowl team for all three years he has been at West and is a member of the Computer Science Honor Society. He also helps other students by being a tutor in the Lit Center and is a part of West Helps Others (WHO) club.
Outside of school, Mui competes for the Chicago A/B Team at this year’s ARML contest (American Regions Mathematics League). Also, he has a data analytics passion project involving baseball that he works on in his free time.
“Next year is my last year here at Niles West. I want to be able to leave Niles West having the math team better than when I came here freshman year. In my time here, we’ve doubled the size of the math team, we’ve performed amazingly at the two contests we do (ICTM and NSML) and overall, we’ve created a community. And that’s amazing, I’d say,” Mui said.
