A group of Haverford mathematicians recently put their skills to the test in the annual Purple Comet Math Competition, a virtual, international math contest designed for middle and high school students. Teams of up to six students may compete, submitting answers to a list of math problems within a predetermined time frame. This year, Haverford had multiple teams in the competition.
According to math teacher Mr. Jeremy Fus, the benefits of participating in math competitions go beyond building computational skills.
“Any time students get the opportunity to work together, especially on difficult challenges such as math competitions, it helps them figure out good ways to go about working together, which is not necessarily something students are naturally good at. These [competitions] help students learn that different types of collaborative tasks require different approaches,” Mr. Fus said.
The competition is hosted by the Institute of Competition Sciences (ICS), which was founded in 2012. The goal of ICS is to “help transform learning into an exciting challenge for all students.”
The competition’s structure adds to the excitement. Teams have a ten-day window in April when they can compete. When a team is ready to begin, Mr. Fus, serving as faculty advisor, logs into the competition website and starts the clock. Once the clock starts, students gain access to the list of thirty math problems, all of varying difficulty.
The goal: solve as many problems as possible correctly within 90 minutes.
“This is the same team we had for the math modeling competition. Because of that, we have great chemistry and know one another’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Conor Mcdonald ’25
Fifth Former Conor McDonald is confident about his team’s performance this year.
“This is the same team we had for the math modeling competition. Because of that, we have great chemistry and know one another’s strengths and weaknesses. That gave us the advantage of knowing who should be working on which types of problems and who to pass a problem on to if stuck.”
With approximately three minutes available per problem, the competition is one of both skill and strategy; the ability to work as a team is a key to success.
“I like competitions like these, not only because I get to compete against other schools, but also because these competitions are team based. It’s not just me in the room,” Fifth Former Finn Kelly said. “I have five other guys ready to help me out if need be.”
“We solved more problems than we have in previous years, so I am excited to see the results,” Conor McDonald said.
The last time Haverford placed in the competition was 2021, when Team Alpha earned second place by solving 23 of the 30 questions correctly.
At the end of the ten-day contest window, sometime in mid-April, the problems and solutions will be posted on the Purple Comet website and winning teams will be listed.
“It was a great experience this year. Everyone on the team was dedicated, and I think we did pretty well in the competition overall,” Kelly said.
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