test.

Founders is a new charter school

with a strong emphasis on histo-

ry, study of unabridged original

texts, and academic rigor. Thus

the school wanted Dickensian

carolers who were as authentic

as possible. Fortunately, Gail is

friends with many talented peo-

ple, including Civil War re-

enactors who can also sew and

sing. Voila!

This left Gail scurrying around

like crazy on the afternoon of

both events, but that state is

standard for a contest director.

Many people stared at the bur-

No, we didn’t have a contest to

see who could sing Christmas

carols the best. While the Venn

diagrams of math and music in-

tersect richly, we aren’t that

crazy.

Instead, Gail (a mathleague staff

member who runs some con-

tests) just dressed up as a char-

acter from a Charles Dickens

novel and sang Christmas carols

during the Sprint round.

No, it didn’t seem to distract the

students; they hardly noticed.

Confused yet? Let’s try this again

from the beginning..

At mathleague.org, we want to

be good neighbors. Since we rely

on schools to host our contests,

we are happy to return small

favors when we can.

Gail had already scheduled two

contests at Founder’s Classical

Academy, a charter school in

Leander, TX, when one of her

friends also asked her to organ-

ize a group of Dickensian Christ-

mas carolers for a PTA holiday

party. The party fell at the same

school, same date, and same

time as the middle school con-

“Ms. Gail,” in Dickensian cos-

tume, hands out trophies to

middle school students near

Austin, TX. December 6, 2014.

Dickensian Christmas Carol Contest!

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Carol

Contest!

1

Trophies, not

Grades

2

Backstory 2

Kudos 2

Picture Page 3

mathleague message J A N U A R Y 3 , 2 0 1 5 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1 V

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Our online

Number Sense/

Mental Math

Magic class for

elementary

students begins

1/8. See http://

math-

league.org/

classes0.php for

that and other

classes.

Our online

AIME prep class

begins 2/9.

gundy bonnet, but few people

thought the mad dashes hither

and yon odd.

The party took place in a differ-

ent building, so the noise didn’t

even bother the test takers.

As another happy bonus, Gail

wore the caroling costume for

the awards ceremony. The offi-

cial excuse was that she didn’t

have time to change back, but

the editor of this newsletter

suspects she was just enjoying

the season.

From the principal, Dr. O’Toole,

to the math coach, Ms. O’Brien,

to the PTA organizers, led by

Amanda Porter, to Julie Kimball,

costumer extraordinaire, to all

the parent volunteers for the

party and the contests, everyone

worked together to make sure

things went smoothly. Both

events were quite successful.

While we hope that our staff

members are professional at all

times, rumor has it that Gail sang

“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” in

a bad Cockney accent, just for

fun.

If you promise not to judge,

she’ll cheerfully sing at your

school, too, provided it’s hosting

a contest. Preferably a Valen-

tine’s Day-themed contest with

free chocolate.

It’s all part of being a good neigh-

bor.

P A G E 2

We suggest that

students enjoy the

contest experience,

aim for a personal

best, and look

through their

returned test

papers to learn

from their mistakes.

If you have a child

who consistently

wins trophies, that’s

wonderful, but not

necessary.

It’s like a child

playing soccer just

for fun; she will

probably never get

to the Olympics,

but she’ll learn

important skills and

get plenty of

exercise.

This is great “brain

muscle” exercise.

Everyone can

benefit from the

mathleague

program. Kudos

Why “Low” Scores? Many parents and students,

after trying a math contest for

the first time, are shocked at

their “low” scores.

Much of this comes from the

perspective of a traditional

classroom, in which teachers

cover specific material and

then try to assess how much

of it a student has mastered.

Most of us are accustomed to

the idea that getting 75% of

the questions on a test right

means a C and 95% right

means an A.

In most math contests, howev-

er, that classroom perspective

is no longer relevant.

First, we are not testing stu-

dents on material they have

already learned; we ask hard

questions to encourage new

thought processes.

Second, these tests are de-

signed to tease out the top

fraction of a percent, which

means the test will be

weighted with extremely chal-

lenging questions.

It comes as a particular shock

when an elementary student

who earns straight As gets a 0

on one of our tests. That’s

almost always because our

questions emphasize new

problem-solving ideas and go

far beyond the normal arith-

metic curriculum.

It can be very deflating when

“the smartest kid in the class”

attends a contest with several

hundred other peers and

comes in 73rd place. He hasn’t

suddenly become bad at math,

though. It just takes time to

adjust to the “new normal”

perspective.

These are not your typical

tests, and a low score is not

the same as “failing.” We

hand out trophies, not grades.

Please see why.mathleague.org

for more information.

also saw excellent results at

the elementary and high school

levels.

***

Proud of a student? Know

someone who got a perfect

score on Number Sense? Have

a great team photo from an

awards ceremony? Email us

There were so many perfect

scores this month, it is impos-

sible to list them all. In particu-

lar, we saw stellar performanc-

es on the 11512 tests adminis-

tered on November 22 in both

the Bay Area and Houston.

Great job everyone! Obviously

it’s time to make the middle

school tests even harder! We

with praise, pictures, and pa-

rental permission to publish.

Contact:

Gail Berry

reepicheep@mathleague.org

Please remember to include

the child’s name, grade, place-

ment, and possibly school.

M A T H L E A G U E M E S S A G E

Backstory On test 11521, published in

October, the Team #9 ques-

tion involved a mom sewing

letters on her son’s jersey

incorrectly.

“Abdiel’s mother Athalia was

not at fault for the mix-up,”

the author, Steve Emge, said,

which is a sentiment this editor

approves.

It turns out Abdiel couldn’t

afford to purchase all the let-

ters in “mathlete” so he

bought only the consonants.

After he left for school,

though, the mischievous family

cat, Abramo, played with them

and knocked them to the

floor.

Abdiel’s little sister, a pre-

schooler who couldn’t yet

read, picked them up and

stacked them neatly, but in

incorrect order, on her mom’s

sewing table.

Athalia saw the neat stack and

assumed they were already

organized properly.

Yes, she should have per-

formed a “sanity check,” but

she was simultaneously teach-

ing her four-year-old to read

and dodging the crazy cat.

Perhaps Abdiel should to learn

to sew his own letters on.

Picture Page Below: Images from the December 6th, 2014 contests at Founders Classical Academy in Leander, TX.

P A G E 3

M A T H L E A G U E M E S S A G E

Above: Teammates Ian Janes, Chr istopher Keeling, Seth Coles, and Daniel Ber ry (left to r ight) celebrate their team trophy. Bottom left: Tushar Bhagawalatula from Harmony School of Political Science in Austin with his 3rd place trophy for 5th grade. Bottom center: Maeve Dever won 1st place in 6th grade and placed 1st overall; she also earned a perfect Target score. Bottom right: Rylan Unnasch with his 5th place, 4th grade trophy.