2011 Thanksgiving Tournament

 

With a record 247 students in attendance, Orange County Math Circle’s 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Tournament was held last Saturday, November 26, at Concordia University’s Grimm Hall.

Filing in from the early hour of 8:30, students in the 3rd to 6th grades from all over Orange County flooded the building.  Soon after, once registration was completed, volunteers James Liao and Meril Tomy ran the opening ceremony. With both parents and students in the auditorium for the opening, the halls overflowed with people. Soon, it was time for the individual round, where students would have to quickly solve 30 problems in 40 minutes. Although it was quite difficult, many students did well. After a short break, the students formed teams of approximately four with their friends to tackle the team round. The team round consisted of more challenging questions in order of increasing difficulty. To be successful on the test, students were faced with the challenge of working effectively as a group, which many did, employing creative strategies to maximize the number of questions answered.  

A toy drive was held this year, with Anne Chen, an enthusiastic OCMC volunteer, in charge. Outside the tournament hallway, a table piled with donated toys impressed everyone, including the volunteers themselves. 

After another intermission, the students went outside for the relay round. The relay round resembled a relay race, in that the “race” was segmented into many parts. But to “pass the baton” to the next runner, students had to correctly solve a math problem. Energetic and determined, students ran to and back from the table tables on the other side of a stretch of grass, and animatedly discussed answers with teammates after turns.

Finally, the awards ceremony revealed the top 12 individual scorers and top 3 teams of this year’s Thanksgiving Tournament. With another successful event, the Orange County Math Circle looks forward to continuing its Thanksgiving tradition.

2011 Thanksgiving Tournament Results:

1.  Praneet Iddamsetty, Evan Chien, Ibrahim Alivov, Vardaun Bhat 

2. Mia Roh, Kianna Dominick, Andrei Mandelshtam, Ryan Wang
3. Akhilan Gurumorthy, Brandon Shin, Matthew Lou

5th Grade

1.  David Serrano, Armen Simonian, Vahan Vorperian, Angela Yan 

2. Anton Ni, Wyatt Iles, Daniel Bolotin, Michael Xu 

3. Michelle Hung, Lan Jiang, Amy Zhong, Jungwoo Park

2011 Exams & Answer Keys