The McLean Mathematics League Team won first place in the Newton Math Competition at George Washington University on Jan. 19, hosted by the Newton Foundation for the Advancement of Math and Science Education.

The McLean Mathematics League Team signed up eight students for the competition. The students were split up into two teams: Team 1 and Team 2. Team 1 had Christopher Tillotson, Sally Jung, Youngmin Kwon and Shinwoo Jeon. Team 2 had Rick Yoon, Alex Kim, David Song and Katie Emma Kim.

“The competition was amazing and a great experience for me,” sophomore Alex Kim said.

This competition covered pre-calculus mathematics. The competition was composed of two parts, one for the individual and the other for the team. Each member of the teams did both the team section and the individual section. The individual section consisted of 11 problems to be completed in two hours. The individual section was very difficult as they weren’t allowed to use calculators..

“The individual section was hard because you didn’t just get the points for getting the problem right, they also graded it by the work that was shown. Also, these problems were much harder than anything we had done in class,” sophomore Rick Yoon said.

The team section consisted of six problems and also two hours.

The results came in last week, and Team 1 found out they won first place.

“It was a group effort. If one team or individual won the whole team won because we prepared each other for the grueling competition,” Yoon said.