The Kent School Math Team is a group of students who are passionate about mathematics and willing to invest time outside of the classroom to delve into the subject deeply.
The team is led by team captains Arthur Illidge ’25 and Wendy Zhou ’25, supported by team advisors Ms. Amy Lorn and Mr. Patrick Kinsella, both of whom are Kent School math teachers. The team meets every Tuesday to practice solving different math problems. Captains sometimes print materials when preparing for certain contests, but the team also engages in fun mathematical exercises to enhance logical thinking abilities and promote friendship.
The Math Team also actively participates in highly competitive contests with the support of Kent School. This year, five students qualified for the MathCon National Finals in Chicago, and the school generously paid for 50 % of their travel expenses to Chicago in May. In the most competitive high school math competition, the AMC 10/12 contests, there are over 150,000 worldwide participants annually but a qualifying rate as low as 5 %. Nevertheless, four Kent students qualified for the AIME through the AMC 12 this year. In addition, the Team holds contests in school each trimester; the spring contest is Trig Star, which tests accuracy and speed when applying trigonometric formulas.
Ms. Lorn encourages current and prospective team members to “try every competition” to gain experience, and then to focus on preparing for specific contests. For students taking the AMC 12, Ms. Lorn said they “must learn advanced trigonometry, complex numbers, and logarithms before taking the AMC 12, or take the AMC 10 instead.” She also highlights the team’s successes: the Math Team has AIME qualifiers each year, a member who ranked third in the state of Connecticut, and members had strong performances at MathCon and the New England Math Competition. Most importantly, she emphasizes the collaborative environment of the team: “Self-studying is transactional and result-driven, but the Math Team is process-driven and interest-driven. Here, students enjoy math academically and progress together, thereby fostering a supportive learning environment.”
Team Co-Captain Arthur Illidge encourages everyone to join the math team, as the “scary-looking problems in math competitions are usually not as hard as you think; you just try to break them down and solve them step by step.” Doing math is similar to our life. Nothing can be achieved overnight. We need to take one step at a time on the road of life and eventually achieve success.
