Pencils ready? Have a head for numbers? Well, read on . . .

Beaver Area’s chapter of the PA Math League is back at it this year ready to rack their brains to win the prize (or in this case, certificate).

The Math League meets once a month in sponsor Mr. Corey Shinton’s room, Room 100A. Although normally only ten students participate from month-to-month, anyone is welcome to join.

Students are given six problems ranging from pre-algebra to pre-calculus and then have 30 minutes to solve them. Once the problem is solved, students will hand them in to Mr. Shinton to be scored on a scale of 0-6.

“After the students hand in their problems I will work through each problem with them if they are confused,” said Mr. Shinton.

There is a set date for each school to complete and submit their problems, but the teachers are given a week to turn in scores to Math League Online providing some limited leeway on which day your school chooses to meet.

“We compete with other schools in our county such as Blackhawk. We take our top five scores from students and this is our ‘school score.’ About a week after we turn our scores in we will receive a score report to see where we rank against other schools [both locally and statewide],” explained Mr. Shinton.

The ultimate goal for the Math League at the end of the year is to have the highest score in our county winning them a certificate.

A certificate is also awarded to individual students who receive a 6/6 on their problems along with being mentioned in the Math League newsletter.

Regular participants include seniors Josh Mateer and Joey Figgins and junior Cindy Lui as well as several other participants less consistently.

Lui said, “I like the people in Math League. They’re all very bright and dedicated.”