SCRANTON, Pa. -- Hundreds of students from all over our area put their math skills to the test Thursday morning but it wasn’t your average day in the classroom.
They were punching their calculators and the pressure was on at a math contest at Johnson College.
Abington Heights eighth grader Bobby Tricirico said the competition is stiff.
“Oh, it's tense.”
More than 300 middle schoolers from Susquehanna to Monroe Counties faced off in a series of three challenges: a solo, relay, and team competition where they work together with students from other districts.
“Kind of like, divide and conquer for team. We have to stay focused and we have to make sure that we're not overlapping our problems and for the solo, anything you don't know, move on,” Tricirico said.
Now usually when you think of a competition you think it's going to be really loud but these kids are focused.
“This is their super bowl of events for the latter part of the year. They have so much passion to be here and they're going to give it their best,” Abington Heights Middle School math teacher Brian Saslo said.
Mathletes have been going head to head in the competition for 29 years now at the Dr. Frank J. Sottile Memorial Math Contest, and this was one of their best turnouts ever.
“Anyone can do math, you just have to find what exactly you like about math and not find all the negative parts about it,” Valley View seventh grader Della Noon said.
When all the numbers are crunched and the medals have been handed out, students said they walk away with a whole new appreciation for problem-solving.