By Gargoyle news staff
Posted Friday, April 6, 2007, The OG, news & student awards

FOR THE FOURTH consecutive year, Alex Zhai has been invited to participate in the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, also known as the USAMO, one of the nation's most prestigious math contests.

Zhai, a junior, was invited based on his score on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, a 15-question, three-hour exam in which each answer is an integer number from 0 to 999.

In the USAMO selection process, each student has an “index,” calculated by adding the American Mathematics Contest score to 10 times the AIME score. This year, students with indices 197.5 or higher were invited to take the USAMO. Zhai, who scored 150 on the AMC in February, scored 13 on the AIME in March for a USAMO index of 280.

He and eight other Uni students qualified to take the AIME. Zhai was the only Uni student to advance to the USAMO, bringing him one step closer to representing the United States again at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Only about 500 students nationwide advance to the USAMO, a six-question, nine-hour exam given over two days. Zhai will take the USAMO on April 24 and 25.

From there, the top 12 students will be invited to a two-day Olympiad Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C. Six students will then go on to represent the United States in the International Mathematical Olympiad this summer in Vietnam.

Last year, Zhai earned the second-highest score in the country on the USAMO.

In July he won a silver medal at the IMO as the U.S. team placed fifth in the world out of 90 countries. The 2006 IMO was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

“I'm just going to take this one step at a time,” Zhai said of trying to make the IMO team again. “Right now I'm only thinking as far ahead as the USAMO. I'm not going to think too much about last year's results, either. I will focus on not making unnecessary errors for a solid performance. Solid performance is the key.”

[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