Toughest Math Contest Aced

Last weekend Bulgaria was hit with freezing record temperatures. The roads got cleared of snow but the frost was biting as students from The American College of Sofia headed to Yambol for one of the toughest competitions in the land, The Atanas Radev National Mathematics Competition.

"Traditionally only math schools take part, since the contest is really quite difficult," explained Hristo Hristov, Chair of the ACS Math and Computer Science Department. "The American College has always participated, and has shown good results each time. But I don't think that something like this has happened until now in the history of mathematics at the College."

On Saturday morning, the competition kicked off at 9:00. Four problems: two worth 7 points and two worth 6. When time ran out at 1:30 pm, two eleventh graders had solved them all and had achieved the maximum of 26 pts. Hristo Papazov and Ivan Ganev.

The competition, organized by the Ministry of Education and The Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria, is part of the series of competitions that select Bulgaria's national teams. With their victory, our boys now have a real chance at representing the country in international Olympiads and contests.

"This score is an excellent example of the fact that, although not a math school and not teaching ten periods of math a week, our kids who have such talents can develop them here," Hristov said. "But with us they will develop many other skills as well."

Congratulations to the champions!

And for the "civilians," you can test your ability to solve their problems from the Yambol competition here (in Bulgarian): bit.ly/1RImX7t