On Feb 7 we traveled by bus to Liberty University in Lynchburg for the VA Southwest Mathcounts Chapter competition.

The following students represented BMS: (from left to right) Ninh Nguyen, Henry Teng, Giang Nguyen, Elly Zhu, Sarah Ou, Vincent Cheng, Aaron Liu, Alexander Koptsevich, Maximilian Li, George Deng, Michael Yang, Jacob Ji, and Noah Zhang. Not shown is Abraham Du.

The coaches Dr. Back, Dr. Zhu, and Mrs. Goldsberry accompanied the trip.

The BMS team and contestants won several prizes.

Team Competition Results​

1. Place: BMS (Jacob Ji, Maximilian Li, Ninh Nguyen, Giang Nguyen)

Individual Competition Results​

2. Place: Maximilian Li
3. Place: Jacob Ji

The Top 25% of competitors were listed; we swept 9 of the 11 spots.

Countdown Round Results​

2. Place: Jacob Ji
3. Place: Aaron Liu
4. Place: Michael Yang

In total, we advanced 9 students to the Countdown Round. The others were Vincent Cheng, Giang Nguyen, Ninh Nguyen, Abraham Du, George Deng, and Maximilian Li.

Advancing to State​

The 4 team members

• Jacob Ji
• Maximilian Li
• Ninh Nguyen
• Giang Nguyen

will advance to state. In addition, the following individuals will also advance

• George Deng (also received an honorable mention as best non-team competitor)
• Abraham Du
• Aaron Liu

The State round will take place March 28 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Congratulations to all!

Thank you to Mrs. Diane Goldsberry for sponsoring Mathcounts this year and accompanying us on the trip and thank you to principal Dr. Johnson for supporting it.

On Jan 23 our school contest took place. 24 students took part. We like to thank the 10 Ut Prosim Volunteers from Virginia Tech who helped with proctoring and grading of the contest.

Overall Results​

The top three contestants overall were:

1. Place: Jacob Ji
2. Place: Maximilian Li
3. Place: Ninh Nguyen

In 6th Grade​

1. Place: Ninh Nguyen
2. Place: Aaron Liu
3. Place: Anthony Ni

In 7th Grade​

1. Place: Jacob Ji
2. Place: Maximilian Li
3. Place: Abraham Du

In 8th Grade​

1. Place: Giáng Nguyen
2. Place: Audrey King

Congratulations to these students! I have also notified those students who have qualified for the Chapter competition based on the school contest results and the practice points. We will head to Lynchburg on February 7.

I have sent detailed results for every registered student to their parent via email. Here is a histogram of all scores. Hopefully we'll see some of the participating students next year in Mathcounts!

Team Photo will be added once we have met again after the snow to distribute the certificates!

Our 2025/2026 School Contest is scheduled for Friday, January 23, 2026. Parents must register their students:

The contest is open to all BMS students (6th, 7th & 8th grade) who are interested in Mathematics. The competition will take about 2 hours. Since it will take place during school hours, students may have to make up missed classes.

What to expect:

Students will work on 2 problem sets taking 40 minutes and 24 minutes each, one using a calculator, and one without.

Certificates will be awarded for the best overall as well as for students placing among the top 3 in their respective grade levels.

In addition, each participant will (privately) receive detailed feedback about which problems they solved and their relative performance. This feedback will be emailed to the parent's registered email address.

The competition will help determine who will represent BMS at the Chapter-level competition, along with participation in the weekly practices in the MathCounts club that was started in the Fall semester. If you are interested in having your child participate, please register below.

For any questions, contact Coach Dr. Godmar Back at godmar@gmail.com.

Your Mathcounts team:

• Theta Back
• Dr. Zhu
• Ms. Goldsberry

At the Nov 24/Dec 1 meetings, Theta presented on

• Geometry

The Dec 8 meeting was canceled due to weather.

At our meeting, students did a Combinatorics Stretch and the advanced group did a Radicals Stretch.

Theta concluded the discussion on:

• Divisor counting and divisibility

The advanced group continued working on 2022 State Sprint, see

• State Sprint 2022 11-24
• Scanned notes

Note on Calculators​

For the Target and Team rounds of the competition, calculators are allowed. The rules allow any type of calculator (even programmable ones), as long as they do not have a qwerty-style keyboard and as long as they do not have an Internet connection.

High-end choices include the TI-NSpire CX CAS series of calculators or the classic TI-84. We will borrow some of these calculators for the school competition, but you may also purchase one for your child.

I have purchased a set of simpler calculators which I will bring and loan to students for practices. These calculators are simpler to operate compared to the high-end ones, but they support some essential operations such as computing combinations and reducing fractions.