On March 4, the New Hyde Park Senior High Mathletes team competed in the Nassau County Interscholastic Mathletes League under the club’s advisor, Mr. Sime. The competition took place at Sewanhaka High School with the four other Sewanhaka District High Schools. New Hyde Park’s A team placed 17th out of over 100 teams in the county while the B team placed 29th.
The NCIML competes in monthly competitions throughout the year, starting in October and ending in March. In the first five tournaments, there are three rounds and six questions total, and students are expected to compete individually. The sixth and final competition involves students working collaboratively in groups of 10 to answer ten questions.
“To prepare for our competitions we did plenty for practice problems during meetings. Going over different ways to solve them and the solutions was definitely very helpful!” senior Emily Lee said. “Something I know I did before competitions was looking over formulas and doing extra practice questions for topics I wasn’t good at. Basically practice makes perfect for all aspects of the competition, especially practing answering questions faster!”
While preparing for a competition can focus on individual performance, it is important to work as a team when faced with high-stakes situations.
“As secretary, I made sure everyone came together in preparation for the competition. It was our school against the others in the district, so pressure was definitely on,” senior Zarif Abrar said. “Thanks to our hard work, we managed to win and even got a perfect score of 10/10.”
This win for New Hyde Park was particularly significant given that the current team is adjusting after graduating last year’s seniors.
“While it is always exciting to win, this year was supposed to be a ‘rebuilding’ year after so many extremely talented mathletes graduated last year. The fact that we were able to secure the win with a team in transition was incredible,” Mathletes adviser Mr. Sime said.
