Westtown Students Shine in Math Competitions

On Friday, December 6, Westtown’s Math Department hosted the Philly Math League Olympiad. This was the first time Westtown School has hosted the Math Olympiad. There were teams from George School, Hill, Penn Charter, Episcopal, Baldwin, Agnes Irwin, Haverford, Masterman (for the first time), Springside-Chestnut Hill, Shipley, and Friends Central.  

The olympiad is the culminating event of the Philly Math League season. Every team competes during every round of six questions, which could either be individual based (where the top five scores of a team are added together) or cooperative (where students work as a team to submit one solution set). It was a great opportunity for Westtown’s team to see the participants they’ve been competing against all fall. 

The energy in the Uptown Lounge was palpable as students spent the morning solving and discussing diverse math questions alone and working in teams of eight. The Westtown team finished in the top four schools in the competition, with a very close semifinal loss to Episcopal Academy, who eventually lost by one point to George School, the three-time defending champion. Math teacher Jake Norton and Math Department Chair Susan Waterhouse share, “Our young team has a lot of depth and we are looking forward to continuing to build strength in the coming year!” 

Congratulations to Westtown’s team: Tiantong Hu  ’26, Isabella Jin  ’27, Jamie Lee ’27, Jayden Qin ’28, Jerry Rao ’27, Bailey Tuckman ’25, Angela Wang ’26, and Max Zhang ’27! 

Enjoy other photos from the Olympiad here! 

In Other Math News: American Mathematics Competition

The American Mathematics Competition (AMC) is a series of math examinations designed to challenge middle and high school students with engaging problems, aiming to identify mathematical talent, foster a love of math, and develop critical problem-solving skills through friendly competition; essentially, it’s a national program focused on strengthening future generations of mathematicians by providing engaging math challenges across different levels of difficulty.

The top three AMC 10 (for 9th and 10th graders) scores were: 
1. Isabella Jin ’27
2. Jayden Qin ’28
3. Max Zhang ’27

The top three AMC 12 (for 10th and 12th graders) scores were: 
1. Jamie Lee ’27
2. Angela Wang ’26
3. Tiantong Hu ’26

Additionally, Jamie Lee ’27  received a Certificate of Achievement for his score on the AMC 12 as a 10th grader; received a Certificate of Distinction as a top 5% score in the country; and, qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination). Junior Angela Wang qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) and sophomore Isabella Jin received a Certificate of Distinction as a top 5% score in the country; received an Honor Roll of Distinction as a top 1% score in the country; and qualified for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination). Congratulations to all!