About 50 math mavens racked their brains for the thrill of competition Thursday in Glendale College’s fourth time around for competition in the annual American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges contest.

Blood, sweat, and tears may be the province of athletes, but these enthusiastic students nonetheless rigorously showed their stuff on this exam all for the love of ciphering and money.
The sequestered environment in CM122 was like AP test setting, while contestants sweated pondered over questions ranging from standard equations to the ever-daunting trigonometry.

This has been but one of three rounds that AMATYC will present to students over the course of the year. After further exams in February and March, all scores from the five top students will be added, yielding a team score to compete against those of other schools nationwide.

GCC has finished as high as 18th nationwide in past competitions, with individual students reaching the top 10.

ASGCC awards top contestants $500 in cash prizes.

Thursday’s competition is just one way the AMATYC has worked closely with Glendale College’s math division for 27 years. The organization also provides a forum for exchanging ideas on improving math instruction in the community colleges for 2,800 campuses nationwide.