Each year, Trinity College School students accept the challenge of writing the annual math contests hosted by the Centre for Education in Mathematics & Computing at the University of Waterloo. Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, 128 math contests were written by TCS students, who showed courage and determination in preparing for and writing these rigorous tests.

In morning chapel service on Thursday, May 23rd, TCS celebrated those “mathletes” who had strong results on the contests. Those who scored in the top 25% received Distinction certificates and lapel pins (with repeat recipients earning a gold pin). 

Last fall, a group students was invited to write the Canadian Open Math Competition. Of those, 12 students finish in the top half of the country and were recognized in chapel: Percy Zhang, Alex Tang, Risi Chen, Tony Wei, Eason Fan, Serena Tang, Nicolas Shi, Yeriel Oh, Jack Lin, Christopher Shu, Landon Demrovsky and Matthew Kutakh (school champion).

In November, the Canadian Intermediate and Senior Mathematics Contests were held. Earning Distinction on the intermediate contest were: Christopher Shu, Rebecca Zhang, Yeriel Oh, Serena Tang and Risi Chen (school champion). On the senior contest, five students placed in the top 25%: Eric Jin, Nicolas Shi, Christina Jia, Ha Chi Kieu and Matthew Kutakh (earning his second school champion designation).

At the Grade 9 level, 27 students wrote the Pascal Contest, joining nearly 20,000 peers worldwide. Earning Distinction were: Isabella Lan, Serena Tang, Connor Demrovsky, Sam VanEsveld, Antonia Patsias, Tony Wei and school champions Jack Lin and Yeriel Oh. Of note, both Sam and Antonia are Grade 8 students from the Junior School!

The top 10 TCS students in the Pascal were invited to write the more challenging Fryer problem-solving contest, with Yeriel Oh and Serena Tang achieving top-25% scores. 

Scoring in the top 25% globally on the Grade 10 Cayley Contest were: Percy Zhang, Risi Chen, June Kim, Claudia Zeng and Christopher Shu (school champion). Three students went on to earn Distinction on the Galois problem-solving contest: Jack Lin, Percy Zhang and Christopher Shu (once again as school champion).

The Grade 11 Galois Contest produced amazing results, with six students earning Distinction: Matthew Kutakh, Arjun Sharma, Landon Demrovsky, Alex Tang, Roger Zhang and school champion Nicolas Shi, who scored a perfect result! Nicolas also went on to score in the top 25% on the challenging Hypatia problem-solving contest.

Finally, the longest and most challenging contest is the Grade 12 Euclid, a two-and-a-half hour problem solving contest. More than 21,000 students worldwide took part, including 16 TCS students. Four mathletes earned Distinction: Nicolas Shi, Christina Jia, Eric Jin and our school champion, William Liu.

In closing, Mr. Matt Murray, head of the Senior School mathematics department, noted. “We have recognized here today all of those students who scored very high marks in these challenging contests. Every student who wrote a contest is to be congratulated for the initiative to take on this tough challenge.” He encouraged students to consider coming out to join the math contests when the new season begins in September.

Congratulations to our mathletes, and to the math teachers who helped to prepare them for the contests!