By Gargoyle news staff
Posted Thursday, May 24, 2007, The OG, news & student awards

Alex Zhai tied for the second-highest
score in this year's USA Math Olympiad.
(Gargoyle photo) (click to enlarge)

JUNIOR ALEX ZHAI has won a $15,000 scholarship for earning the second-highest score in the 2007 United States of America Mathematical Olympiad.

Zhai received the scholarship Monday in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. This is the second $15,000 scholarship that Zhai has received in as many years.

In 2006, Zhai also earned the second-highest USAMO score. This year he tied for second with Sherry Gong, a Harvard-bound senior at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Gong also received a $15,000 scholarship.

The two students scored 28 out of a possible 42 points. Only 505 students out of an original pool of 225,000 candidates were invited to compete in the USAMO, which is a six-question test that is completed over two days using precalculus concepts and methods.

Zhai was in Washington this week to attend a Mathematical Association of America awards ceremony for the 12 students who were named USAMO winners. The Akamai Foundation, created by Akamai Technologies Inc. in 2000 to promote excellence in mathematics, awarded scholarships totaling $50,000 to the three students who finished with the highest scores in the 2007 USAMO.

Besides the awards to Zhai and Gong, a $20,000 scholarship went to Brian Lawrence, a Caltech-bound senior at Montgomery Blair H.S. in Silver Spring, Md., who earned the highest USAMO score (32 points).

It has been a busy week for Zhai. His itinerary began Sunday with an awards ceremony at MAA headquarters, followed by the State Department event the next day.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhai and the 11 other USAMO winners took the Team Selection Test for a spot on the six-person squad that will represent the United States in this summer's International Math Olympiad.

The team will consist of the six students with the highest combined scores from the TST and the USAMO.

If Zhai qualifies for the IMO team, he will spend three weeks in June preparing at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program, where the students will be trained for the 2007 IMO, to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from July 19 to 31.

Last year Zhai was one of the six students who represented the United States in the 2006 IMO in Slovenia. He won a silver medal as the U.S. team placed fifth in the world out of 90 countries.

Zhai qualified for participation in this year's USAMO because of his scores on two previous tests administered by the Mathematical Association of America: the American Mathematics Contest 10 or 12 and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination.

He finished with a perfect 150 on the AMC 12 and scored a 13 on the AIME.

The AIME score is multiplied by 10 and added to a student's AMC score; if this number exceeds 197.5, the student can participate in the USAMO. Zhai's scores yielded a qualification index of 280.

More than 225,000 students took part in the AMC. The field was cut to 10,000 students for the AIME, after which the field was narrowed to the 505 invited to compete in the USAMO.

[Note: For those interested in learning more about what competing in the International Math Olympiad is like, see Steve Olson's 2004 book, “Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition.”]

RELATED

Alex Zhai's road to the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad

— Feb. 20, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: More than 30 Uni students advance in national math competition

— April 2, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: Alex Zhai invited to compete in USA Math Olympiad

— April 25, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: Alex Zhai earns second-highest score in 2006 USA Math Olympiad

— June 3, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: Alex Zhai wins $15,000 scholarship

— June 19, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: Alex Zhai to represent U.S. at International Math Olympiad

— July 16, 2006, Gargoyle coverage: Zhai wins silver medal at International Math Olympiad

— Sept. 22, 2006, Gargoyle first person by Alex Zhai: IMO a milestone, but not the end