"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
The Young Mathematicians
MS Math Students Score in Top 5% of Nation
Eighteen Middle School students were presented with awards at Meeting on January 6 in honor of their impressive scoring on a national mathematics exam.
Four out of the 18 students — Alex A. ’20, Isabella C. ’20, Kiran S. ’20, and Ben Z. ’20 — placed in the top 5% of Middle School students nationwide. The test, The American Math Challenge 8 (or, AMC 8), is an annual exam taken by over a quarter-of-a-million Middle Schoolers nationwide. This exciting news comes at the apex of what math teacher Benjie Messinger-Barnes ’05 describes as a “palpable excitement for Mathematics at Friends Seminary.”
This year, 95 Friends students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 participated in the competition, an amount nearly triple that of just two years ago. Nationwide, a total of around 350,000 students took part in the Challenge. Timed at just under an hour, this twenty-five question exam packs a punch, with questions ranging from easy to difficult, giving students a vantage point to how their personal skills compare to the national averages.
Alex A. ’20 was also recognized as the Overall School Winner. Please see below for the full list of students honored. Current Middle Schoolers will later have the chance to participate in the AMC 10/12, which is the Upper School portion of the national exam, complete with more advanced mathematical topics and reasoning.
Grade 6
Grade 8
First - Alex A.
Second - Isabella C., Kiran S., Ben Z.
Third - Ethan H.
Grade 7
First - Philip P., Connor B.
Second - Evan G., Jack N.
Third - Luke D., Gabriel L., Samantha C., Michael F.
Grade 6
First - Yash S.
Second - Andre C.
Third - Anya J., Beatriz L., Leela M.
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Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
