Student wins $150 after he was the only one to show up at a free math contest held by the Long Beach City College Math Success Center.
The math organization AMATYC held a math contest located in the V-building on Friday, March 1, where the top five student placements received prizes.
The moderator of the event Emmanuel Ndoumna, was the only other person in the room.
According to Escalona, he was a bit confused on why no one showed up, but still didn’t feel any nervousness.
The Math Success Center placed posters around campus and held practice sessions for students who were participating in the contest.
Unanimously, Brandon Escalona won the first place prize of $150.
LBCC student Manuel Ceja said, “I did not hear of the event and did not know there was money prizes, but if I would have heard about, I would have definitely shown up.”
The competition was composed of two one-hour exams of 20 questions.
Two competitions are held a year, one in in the fall semester and the second one in the spring semester.
AMATYC national competitions prizes include a $3000 scholarship to the national champion, while Long Beach City College’s prizes gave out a total of $800.
Last year, more than 190 colleges and over 8000 students participated in the contest including universities and high school students.
In order for a school to participate, they need someone from faculty to work as a moderator and make sure all the tests are properly given out, graded, and make sure that all equipment such as calculators meet regulation.
The moderator of the event Ndoumna wants the school to place well nationally for future events.
“We need to convince higher level students to participate,” said Ndoumna.
According to Ndoumna, around ten students did show up to the first one and did not have an answer to why not many students are showing up this semester.
Ndoumna believes students in higher level math courses are not participating in these contests because they are not going to benefit them academically directly.