Two Oak Hill Academy Students Earn Perfect Scores in National Math Olympiads Competition

Perfection is usually considered an unattainable goal, but in the case of two Oak Hill Academy middle school students competing in a national math competition, it was just what was achieved.

Oak Hill Academy 6^th grader, Grace Zheng, and Oak Hill Academy 5^th grader, James Fu, both achieved perfect scores on the Mathematical Olympiads contest for elementary and middle schools. The MOEMS was established in 1979 and their contest program is one of the most influential and fun-filled competitions in the United States and throughout the world. Over 120,000 students from every state and 39 countries participate in the competition.

Grace and James participated in the “E” Division for grades 4-6. Oak Hill Academy runs an after-school club for interested students on Friday afternoons. The competition involves taking five monthly contests from November through March. Each contest contains five challenging and thought-provoking word problems.

MOEMS states their objective is “to teach multiple strategies for out-of-the-box problem solving, develop mathematical flexibility in solving those problems, and foster mathematical creativity and ingenuity.” Oak Hill Academy has found that an added bonus is that these types of opportunities help create an environment where math is considered enjoyable to do and cool to excel in.

Both Grace and James were recognized for their superior performances at the school’s end of the year awards assembly. They received the George Lenchner Award named after the founder of Math Olympiads for their perfect scores. They were also awarded the gold pin for placing in the top 2% nationally and trophies for achieving the highest scores in the school.

The future is bright for these two students, especially as Oak Hill Academy offers many other math competitions for their students in grades 3-8.

Congratulations Grace and James!