Students on the Mu Alpha Theta competition team attended a mathematics competition at Wharton High School to show off their knowledge of calculus and statistics. Held on Saturday, January 20, this event hosted many schools’ teams, including our own Wiregrass Ranch mathletes.

In preparation, the WRHS team practiced math problems at biweekly Friday meetings in the format of the tests they would be presented with at the competition, including a team round and an individual round.

Mu Alpha Theta sponsor, Mr. Adams, commented on the independent style of team preparation.

“I generally let the captains decide how often and how rigorously they want to prepare for the competitions,” Adams said. “Allowing students to create their own schedules led to practicing when and what they needed, rather than wasting time.”

One student on the calculus team, sophomore AJ Persaud, was excited to challenge himself in a new setting.

“This was my first time competing, so I kind of tested the waters,” Persaud said. “The questions we had to practice require teamwork, speed, and precision.”

Each team consisted of four members from the math honor society at WRHS, better known as Mu Alpha Theta. Neil Rupani (captain), Madison Wade, Kelvin Ng, and AJ Persaud made up the calculus team, and Muhamed Hobi (captain), Chin-Chin Choi, Hannah Kim, and Nalin Mehra made up the statistics team.

Even with the two months of thorough preparation, neither team placed in the top three. Each member claimed they had a good time, nonetheless. Statistics team captain and senior Muhamed Hobi recalled the best parts of the competition.

“My personal favorite moment was the triumph we felt after mastering the first question,” Hobi said. “At first we were perplexed, but through our team’s strong chemistry, we were able to navigate the water of math to the correct answer.”

Regarding future competitions, calculus team captain Neil Rupani said, “I think we’ll try practicing on our own more so that we’re more prepared when we come together.”