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Ten Stuyvesant students qualified for the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) examination, which took place from Tuesday, April 29 to Wednesday, April 30. This is the most qualifiers Stuyvesant has ever had.

USAMO is open to all high school students in the United States and Canada. Approximately 500 top scoring American Mathematics Competition and American Invitational Mathematics Examination participants are eligible to take the USAMO.

“Participating in the USAMO is a very prestigious thing,” senior and USAMO qualifier Danny Yuan said.

The nine hour examination consisted of six proof based questions that involved algebra, geometry, counting inequalities and number theory.

“Most won’t answer all six questions,” head coach of the Math team and mathematics teacher Jim Cocoros said. “The way of thinking is more abstract to them than they’re used to.”

According to Corcoros, abstract math is theoretical and proof-based. Abstract math questions do not require definite answers but generalizations.

“Many of the problems ask you to prove things that seem intuitively true, but are quite hard to recognize,” junior and USAMO qualifier Benjamin Hirsch said.

Stuyvesant tied for second place with Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland for the highest number of qualifiers. Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire had the most, with 17 qualifiers.

The record number of Stuyvesant qualifiers was partly due to increased practice with more material and access to online resources.

USAMO winners, honorable mentions, the top 15 scoring non-seniors and the top 30 scoring ninth graders will be invited to a two day Olympiad Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, the Akamai Foundation, the Microsoft Corporation and the Matilda Wilson Foundation.

These students will then attend the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP), a three week program held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to train for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

The top 12 USAMO scorers are eligible take a Team Selection Test.

Only the top scorers on the Team Selection test will be selected for the IMO U.S. team, which consists of six members and two alternates.

The IMO is a world championship mathematics competition where high school teams from over 90 countries compete.

The 2008 IMO will be held in Madrid, Spain from Thursday, July 10 to Tuesday, July 22.

“Math isn’t only about numbers, computations or obscure formulas,” senior and USAMO qualifier Artur Dmowski said. “It’s about abstract ways of thinking […] that’s what makes math especially appealing.”

“Not only are they brilliant, but they’re creative mathematicians who I am sure will do wonderful things for mathematics in the future,” Assistant Principal Mathematics Maryann Ferrara said.