Urbana Middle School has once again joined the Continental Math League (CML) for the 2008-09 school year. It is a nationwide contest that usually has between 250 and 300 participating middle schools. The CML consists of five monthly contests beginning in November and ending in March. The contests are made up of 6 challenging word problems for which students are given 30 minutes without the use of calculators.
The CML comes out of Long Island, New York, and was created by its founders as an effort to challenge our brighter minds. Many of the questions posed inspire abstract thinking and/or encourage thinking “outside the box."
The 2008-09 CML contest got started in November. Honors math students in all three grades participated. Each contest consisted of 6 challenging word problems for which students had 30 minutes without a calculator. Results and averages pitted class against class and generated top student lists for each grade. The overall contest took our top six scores from each grade, which we submitted to the league office in New York, and added them together to get a school score . Results were compiled and we got to see how we stacked up against hundreds of middle schools around the United States and a few overseas.
Our school goal was to be in the top third of participating schools nationwide. That translates into our being in the 33rd percentile or higher.
The sixth grade just missed, landing at the 35th percentile. We were approximately the 93rd school out of 263. Our seventh grade reached the goal and then some. The seventh grade scores put us at the 16th percentile; roughly the 34th school out of 214. With our eighth graders, we just missed the top third by a smidgen. We landed at the 34th percentile, being approximately the 61st school of 178.
Please visit the subpages devoted to each grade. The top 10 or so students are listed for each grade. The 6th, 7th and 8th grade champions are Bhaswanth Potarlanka, Eric Yang and Daniel Yang.
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