Ben Shoff, an 8th grader was the top finisher at the MathCounts Chapter Competition. He answered a few questions about his experience.
What did it feel like to compete?
Overall competing was pretty fun. The competition was pretty quick and the atmosphere was very friendly. The organizers clearly cared about the participants and were all very nice.
What is the thing you'll remember most about it?
I will remember the sprint round of the competition most. In the sprint round you are given 30 questions and 40 minutes to complete all of them without a calculator. At first I was nervous about this round yet shortly after beginning I had already completed around half the questions. I ended up getting around 25/30 questions correct which was about as good as I had hoped to get. When the time ran out I felt really happy with how I had done.
Who was the biggest help to you?
The biggest help to me was definitely the coaches. They are all very knowledgeable and can answer almost any questions you might have about any problem. I learned a lot of new topics in math with the help of the coaches.
What else would you like students to know about this and why should they participate in the future?
If you want to join but feel as if you are not good enough, you should join anyway. We had students from all the grades and students in enriched or unenriched classes. Everyone on the team clearly learned a lot of new topics and all did great. We even had 6th graders becoming proficient at many 8th grade topics.