On 5/19, four Haverford Fifth Formers—Harrison Cross, Jack Ford, Jonny Wang, and Nicholas Zafiriou—took home third place at Temple University’s OWLympiad Math Competition. Hosted by the Fox School of Business since 2010, the competition consists of a written exam portion and a game called “24”, where the premise is to add, subtract, multiply, and divide four random numbers to get the number 24.
Concepts such as geometry, algebra, probability, and calculus were tested in the written portion—these fields of mathematics are all integral in many real-world applications, such as actuarial science.
“Actuaries are involved with assessing risk, so they work for insurance companies, the government, and for other contractors,” Math teacher Mr. Jeremy Fus said. “Because the actuarial science department runs the competition, it’s kind of like a recruiting pitch…to get kids thinking about actuarial science.”
Working as a team, our four students tackled a variety of questions on the written exam, further applying the concepts learned in the classroom in a competitive context.
“The math competition itself was fun since the problems were easy enough that you could kind of just talk with your teammate while taking it, but not so easy as to be uninteresting,” Zafiriou said.
Echoing this sentiment, Ford said, “I thought the multiple-choice and short-answer part of the competition was very fair. It was a broad range of topics, like geometry and algebra, but then we were also doing advanced calculus. No matter what kind of math student you were, there was a place for you in this competition.”
However, students had mixed opinions on the “24” aspect of the competition, which counted towards the final scoring in determining the winners of the competition.
“My least favorite part of the competition was the game of 24,” Ford said. “They had us play this game at the end as a mixer, but it counted towards the competition, which is weird because it was basically just testing how fast you can add or subtract, which isn’t a math skill in itself.”
On the other hand, some found the game to be entertaining.
“Honestly, just being in the city with the guys was my favorite part, as it was enjoyable being around them and participating in this novel thing.”
JACK FORD ’26
“The best part of the competition was definitely during the 24 game portion of the competition, since I got paired with three people who were very chill and we had a great time,” Wang said.
Looking past the controversy with the format of the competition, the experience as a whole proved valuable in not only reinforcing mathematical skills but also having fun.
“Honestly, just being in the city with the guys was my favorite part, as it was enjoyable being around them and participating in this novel thing,” Ford said. “It was a good competition overall, and I’m very happy we did it since it was such a fun experience.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.