Last Wednesday, Feb. 18, the National Math Honor Society (NMHS) hosted an invitational competition in the multipurpose room of the library during Power Hour. Members could take math tests in three brackets: Algebra 2, precalculus and calculus. The top scorers in each category win prizes, and will likely be announced in March. 

“I personally took the calculus test,” Arnav Mittal, 10, said. “Most of the questions were pretty standard difficulty [and covered] the stuff we recently went over [in class].”

Each test was broken into three portions: a general mental math section known as number sense, a section dedicated to the test’s subject (such as algebra or precalculus) and a section of challenge questions diving deeper.

“I think [the sections] made it pretty clear where you might want to focus,” Isaac Kim, 12, said. “It was helpful in dividing attention.”

As opposed to other prominent competitions, such as UIL, the Invitational is organized and managed exclusively by Emerson, acting as a unique gateway for students to pursue higher math competitions. 

“Someone who likes math but doesn’t know what competitions there are [could try] one,” Ali said. “[It could] potentially motivate them to participate in future … state or regional competitions.”

The NMHS officers are hopeful that competition participation will grow in the future and bring exposure to more prospective members.

“Emerson already has a lot of really good students [in clubs] like Academic Decathlon and DECA and BPA,” Ali said. “If the same thing were to happen with math that would really be amazing.”