Math League/MathCounts

Math League/MathCounts is an opportunity for CMS students to participate in mathematics competitions with students from other schools. Practice begins in September and is open to any interested students. To accommodate those students, coaches Bill Prem and Dan Demarce each hold one practice a week – one of them in the morning before school and one of them immediately following the school day. Students can attend either the early or late practice each week as best fits their schedule.

The Minnesota Junior High School Mathematics League (Math League) competition occurs first and involves five Monday meets (generally two in October, one in November, one in December, and one in January) where individuals take two 10-minute tests, and then in teams take a 10-question test for 20 minutes. Each meet has a focus so the teams can practice. CMS generally has enough interested students to field 3 teams. Teams have a maximum of 6 students, and no more than 4 of the 6 may be 8th graders. CMS team members may change throughout the season (depending on past performance in practices and tests) so the most successful competitors at the time may move up to the “first” team. Competition runs until January when the top students are invited to go on to MathCounts competition (see below). For more information, including schedule and team standings, check out the MathLeague website: http://members.aol.com/mathleague/

When MathLeague competition is over, the top 8 CMS students practice to go to a single MathCounts competition in February. CMS can take one 4-member team and two individuals to this competition. The top 6 individuals and top 2 teams advance to state-level competition. (http://mnspe.org/mathcounts/)

CMS students seem to have a great time with the friendly math competitions, and the school has fielded many winning teams and individuals.

For MathCounts problem sets and/or problem series classes, see The Art of Problem Solving.