Mainstreet Daily News
Three Buchholz High School students have qualified for the United States of America Math Olympiad (USAMO). That achievement puts them a step closer to earning a spot on the nation’s math Olympiad team, which will represent the U.S. at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2022.
“This is the highest honor a K-12 math student can achieve without actually being on the five-person Olympiad team,” said Olanrewaju Fayiga, a math teacher at Buchholz and the sponsor of the school’s math team.
The International Olympiad is a prestigious competition for high-achieving young mathematicians from more than 100 nations. In 2022, it will be will be held in Oslo, Norway.
Jake Frazer, Samuel Kim and Sean Han are among just 10 students in Florida and 281 nationwide to be named qualifiers this year. This is actually the fourth time that Frazer has qualified for the national Olympiad, more than any other student in Alachua County.
The three had to earn top scores in two previous math competitions to qualify for the USAMO. Later this month they will take a two-day, nine-hour, six-question test—with no calculators allowed. The content ranges from difficult algebra and pre-calculus problems to problems on branches of mathematics not conventionally covered at school and often not at university level either, such as projective and complex geometry, functional equations, combinatorics, and well-grounded number theory.
Top scorers on the exam will be invited to a summer training camp at Central Michigan University, where the five members of the U.S. team will be chosen.