Tim Tai

On March 1, over 200 middle school math enthusiasts from 50 schools across Connecticut came to Yale’s campus to compete in the MathCounts state tournament.

The state competition consists of a written exam and a “bee”-style contest, and the top four students advance to the national round. Team Connecticut will consist of Alex Svoronos, Ethan Shi, Hayden Hughes and Elaine Zhou, the competitors who placed highest at the competition.  

MathCounts Outreach, a Yale undergraduate organization, sponsored and coordinated the tournament at Yale this year.

Ayush Tibrewal ’26, who is a co-president of MathCounts Outreach and a MathCounts coach for local middle schoolers, wrote that the “Countdown Round” was his favorite part of this year’s tournament.

“It was crazy to see how quick the students were able to answer in the buzz-in style, bracket tournament,” Tibrewal said. “Truly, it is a testament to the work that all of the students put in to get to that level.”

Tibrewal added that being a coach is an “enriching experience” as he watches students improve throughout the year and “see[s] the love for math, no matter what level of math they are engaging in.”

Tibrewal explained that he was motivated to become involved in MathCounts Outreach in college because of his formative experience competing in the competitions in middle school.

“​​I participated in the Mathcounts series of competitions during middle school, and it represented a big step into the world of competitive math for me,” he wrote to the News. “I was able to find a community of peers that was dedicated to learning, improving, and excelling.”

Cece Sheng ’25, who was the previous president of MathCounts Outreach, also participated in MathCounts in middle school.

She wrote that MathCounts serves an important dual purpose: contributing to math education in local schools and coordinating larger math competitions, like the recent state round. By hosting the tournament this year, Yale MathCounts Outreach was able to “ensure that a large group of students were able to have the opportunity to compete and show their math abilities,” per Sheng.

“I just felt really proud that we had coordinated such a large event and brought so many students, teachers, and parents together to celebrate math achievement,” Sheng wrote.

A fact sheet on MathCounts gave a sample question about probabilities.

“Oliver rolls three fair standard six-sided dice. What is the probability that there is at least one pair of dice whose top faces sum to 6? Express your answer as a common fraction,” it said.

The answer is 19/54.