Last March, six Williston students participated in the American Mathematics Competition (AMC), a worldwide competition that involves more than 250,000 high school students. Two Williston students, Dongyang “Don” Cheng ’11 and Jiayuan “George” Xu ’13, scored high enough on the AMC 12 and AMC 10 tests, respectively, to be invited to the next level of competition, the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME).
For their participation in the three-hour long AIME, Don and George were honored at the final assembly of the year by Mathematics Department Head Elizabeth Anderson and Mathematics Teacher Alan Lipp with pins and certificates of distinction on the AMC, and certificates of participation in the AIME.
Don Cheng did so well on the AIME that he was one of only 302 students invited to participate at the next round of competition, the nine-hour United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, which was held over the course of two days in April. This is the second year that Don has competed in the USAMO.
Don also received two additional awards for his outstanding performance in math competitions this year. The first award recognized his scoring in first place in Massachusetts on the AMC. The second recognized his perfect score in all six rounds of competition in the New England Mathematics League, in which math clubs from over 400 schools competed, and for which only a few students in New England achieved a perfect score.