AUGUSTA, Maine — This year the Maine State Math Meet returned as an in-person event for the first time since 2019. Top mathletes from about 85 high schools across the state gathered for the competition at the Augusta Civic Center Tuesday.
Carl Robbins, the co-chair of the meet, said the event brings some friendly competition to problem-solving.
"Math in general is such a great subject area, but it can be a little dry if all we're doing is looking at textbooks," he said.
The high schools are divided into four divisions: A, B, C, and D. There are rounds of both individual competitions and team competitions before the results are tallied. In the individual rounds, students are allotted twelve minutes to answer three questions.
"These aren't your standard textbook problems. The wording tends to be a little unique. You have to really understand what the question is," Robbins said.
Albert Bai, a junior at John Bapst Memorial High School, agreed.
"Maybe the most challenging is just simply understanding the questions and understanding the terms and terminology that the test makers use," Bai said.
Bai is currently the top mathlete in the state based on previous regional competitions. He said he prepared for this meet by practicing with problems from previous years.
Evangeline Eastman, a senior at Bangor High School, said the best approach while at the meet is to keep your cool.
"You know, if you get a problem wrong, or if something goes wrong, just try to let it go," Eastman said.
"These problems aren't nearly as hard as what they're going to see when they go to ARML," Robbins said.
ARML, or the American Regional Mathematics League Meet, is the national competition. The top 30 students in Tuesday's meet will qualify to compete at Pennsylvania State University in June.
"Math team's a lot of work, you know, a lot of studying all year long, a lot of time put into this. So, I think if we could make it to nationals, if we could win states... it would just feel like all of that hard work was paying off," Eastman said.
"We'd definitely like to do well, maybe win, but just overall have fun," Bai said.
The results are in. Maine State Math Meet's Division A first place is Bangor High School, Division B is Cape Elizabeth High School, Division C is John Bapst Memorial High School, and Division D is Gould Academy.
"Whenever kids get together to do something, especially in this kind of environment with these numbers, there's just something exciting to it that they're gonna remember for the rest of their lives," Robbins said.