PVS students participate in MathCounts competition

Pleasant View School students competed in the MathCounts competition on Feb. 1 at Southwest Community College after preparing in the after school club.

MathCounts is a national program that provides students in grades six to eight the opportunity to compete in in-person contests against and alongside their peers.

There are four levels - school, chapter, state and national - and each competition has four rounds. Each round takes about three hours to complete.

At PVS, MathCounts is an after school club where students selected by teachers and tested by math teacher Rizwana Harun prepare for the competition.

“The students participating do this for fun and because they really like math,” Harun said.

Students started with the school test and then headed to the chapter competition. A total of six students went to Southwest. Four competed as a group and two competed individually. The winner from the chapter competition will head to the state level.

With MathCounts, students are tested on high school level math. MathCounts club meets four times a week after school. They use warm-up sheets to practice their skills. Harun also has some high school students help prepare the students.

Sixth-graders Muhammad Shala and Mouhammad Sarr decided to participate because math is fun for them.

“I decided to compete because I’m very competitive, I thought it would be fun and my mom wanted me to,” Sarr said.