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Schools

Diablo Vista Heads To State Math Competition

Diablo Vista placed first for the third year in a row in the regional round and will now move to the state finals for the national Mathcounts Competition.

Some Diablo Vista Middle School students will be heading to state finals after placing first in their district at a national math competition

Diablo Vista won first place in the East Bay Chapter of the Mathcounts Competition last February.

The school has participated for ten years in Mathcounts, and this is the third time in the last three years that Diablo Vista has placed first.

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Mathcounts is a 28-year-old foundation that works to increase U.S. aptitude in mathematics through programs and competitions for middle school students.

The foundation has been recognized by the last five presidents and has had their national competitions televised on ESPN from 2003 to 2005.

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The Mathcounts Competition uses bee style contests to pick winners that go from local chapters, to state finals and then eventually on to the national competition.

“This gives kids who want to apply themselves mathematically a forum to do that,” said Diablo Vista Principal Rebecca Ingram. “For kids like this sometimes there’s not a place for them.”

And because they meet for an hour after school every Friday for weeks on their own time to prepare for the competitions, she said the students learn to go above and beyond.

“There’s no grade for this, there’s no reward so it’s really impressive,” she said.

Diablo Vista’s four person team outscored others in their area, including well respected private schools such as Head Royce by a large margin.

And the teams strongest member, Jianming Wang, scored a perfect 46 score on the test.

“This is phenomenal,” said Diablo Vista teacher Jim Salvi. “They study hard and really start to learn how to problem solve and these kids are good. They’re our future engineers, mathematicians and leaders.”

Diablo Vista will now move on to the state finals that will take place at Stanford University on March 15.

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