MBA junior student eyes Mathematics Olympiad
A junior high school student at the Marianas Baptist Academy will be the first candidate from the CNMI to join the math wizards training to be held in Nebraska.
Jai Wug Kim, 11th grade student from MBA, has hurdled the two qualifying examinations for the U.S. Math Olympics and is now awaiting the result of the last test.
According to MBA instructor Ramir Trinidad, if Kim will pass the last examination, entitled as the U.S. Mathematics Olympiad, he will join the elite group of six top mathematicians in the entire U.S.
The last examination was recently mailed to MBA with the strict instruction that only the school principal can open the sealed document. After it was unsealed, a six hour examination took place.
In an interview with Kim, he can only vouch that he did his best.
“It was really hard. I just hope for the best. It was mostly calculus and trigonometry-based type of questions. You need to prove something is true,” he said.
This future computer science expert has hurdled the last two examinations, namely the American High School Mathematics and American Invitational Mathematics. A plaque, recognizing his feat for both rounds, was sent by the 50th Americans Mathematics Competition.
However, the last test will secure him invitation to attend the mathematics training in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Trinidad said his preparation was almost ideal. As a consistent champion of the CNMI Math counts, the review was mostly centered on past questions asked during the competition in the national and mastery levels.
“We practiced every afternoon and he is the best in the academics,” he said. Aside from being one of the CNMI Math Counts winners scheduled to fly to Washington next week, he will also join the local group of Academic Challenge winners in Florida this June.
“If I don’t make it this year, then next year,” Kim assured himself.
But his track record in Math and other academic subjects reassures skeptics that he is set to make a record in the CNMI history. He is the first young Math wizard who made it in the national level and as a member of the elite group.
