Seven seniors in AP Calculus vie on the first Sacred Hearts Math Madness team competitions on Fridays during lunch.

Coach Deborah Kula said, “Math Madness is an online math competition based on the challenging American Math Competitions sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. Over 500 school teams across the nation have registered for this competition.”

The online competition is divided into two phases: league and bracket phases. During the league phase, teams compete against one another in a 10-question, 30-minute game. If both teams are available at the same time, then the competition is live.

Team member Kasandra Kitagawa said, “We all play at the same time on our own computers and are not allowed to collaborate with one another, which makes it even more challenging than it already is.”

Bracket phase is separated into five brackets, based on team size.

Kula said, “The top five player teams are assigned to the Division I bracket, top 10 player teams to Division II, top 15 player teams to Division III, top 20 player teams to Division IV and top 25 player teams to Division V.”

A team score is an average of individual scores.

Team member Hulali Alford said, “So far, we are three challenges into the season and it has been exciting. We are enjoying ourselves while learning a lot about math and hopefully winning a few challenges.”

Kula said, “Math Madness is a fun way to take the curriculum beyond the classroom, offering students the opportunity to view math as a fun thing.”