What is this activity?

The Stuyvesant Math Team is one of the best math teams in the city and nation, and one of the most prolific teams at Stuyvesant. By teaching students about exciting problem-solving techniques and exposing them to a wide variety of math problems, we strive to help students build mathematical intuition and foster a community of people who enjoy math and problem-solving. Additionally, Math Team gives students the opportunity to participate in math competitions to practice their skills. Members are expected to attend Math Team class first period and are strongly encouraged to attend the after school practices, which helps them build connections with each other and introduces them to competitive mathematics. We also host the DMI (Downtown Mathematics Invitational) competition and GEMS (Girls Empowered in Mathematics at Stuyvesant), both of which are completely student-run. Teams from all across New York City come to Stuyvesant to participate, providing an experience for our students to both take competitions and host them.

On what days does this activity meet?

Tuesday, Friday, Wednesday

What is the meeting schedule?

We have practices on Tuesdays and Fridays every week. Tuesday practices are for freshmen and sophomores and Friday practices are for juniors and seniors. Leading up to the AMCs and the AIME, we will also have practices on Wednesdays for all grades to help students prepare for these contests. Math Team is also a first period class every day.

What does a typical meeting look like?

During the daily first period classes, the freshman, sophomores, and juniors are mainly taught by their respective teachers and occasionally by senior math team students. The seniors are taught by their peers on topics of their choosing. At the beginning of Tuesday practices, the freshmen and sophomores attempt problem sets in groups of 4 for around 40 minutes. These problem sets are usually team rounds, but can also be marathon rounds or puzzles. At the beginning of Wednesday practices, students are given time to independently work on a previous year’s AMC 10/12 or AIME. At the beginning of Friday practices, juniors and seniors complete rounds from past competitions such as HMMT November, PUMaC, BMT, CMIMC, etc. in larger groups of 6 to 8 for around 40 minutes. At the end of all practices, the answers are written on the board and solutions are presented by leaders and students based on which problems people struggled with or wish to see alternate solutions for. At Tuesday and Friday practices, the weekly homework is collected.

How does this activity appoint leaders?

Mr. Sterr selects the senior captains for the Math Team each year. Additionally, applications are sent out by email for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors to apply for assistant captains for each grade. Captains write problems and organize the Wednesday and Friday practices. Junior assistant captains write and organize the Tuesday practices. Senior assistant captains help out with these practices and sophomore assistant captains write and grade weekly homework for these practices. If a captain or assistant captain is not doing their necessary role, Mr. Sterr will remove this person from their position and assign it to another student of the same grade. Not attending practices or actively listening in class may also result in someone getting cut from Math Team. However, these occurrences happen rarely and should not discourage anyone from applying.

What makes this activity unique?

We are the only math team that has ever existed in Stuyvesant and have a very long history in this school. There is no other club that teaches non-curricular math to students daily in class. Math Team also provides unique math competition opportunities, such as the AMC 10, AMC 12, AIME, USAMO, USAJMO, HMMT November, HMMT February, ARML, PUMaC, SMT, BMT, USMCA, NYSML, CMIMC, MMATHS, Girls in Math at Yale, MP4G, CML, IML, Purple Comet, TrinMaC, and NYML. The Math Team is also one of the only clubs with teachers who direct each club activity, giving students insight and providing expertise for a better problem-solving experience. Additionally, the Math Team offers a unique community of people who genuinely love math. Members often build meaningful friendships through communication during class activities and at practices and contests. These students not only build connections with each other, but also with other students across the city, state, and even the nation.