Keep improving your math skills and keep preparing as the competition is getting fiercer every year!

In Northern California we had two students who received the top award: an all expenses paid summer math camp in Zakopane, Poland. The Math Kangaroo summer camp is much better known in Europe than in the USA. It's a great camp, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Very talented students meet there and combine wonderful site-seeing with math training. Zakopane is beautiful in summer, we envy the two winners who will spend 10 days there. This prize is awarded to only five students in the whole of the USA.

Other students got exceptionally good scores!

Parents will be able to check the exact score for their student using their own login and password on the Math Kangaroo site sometime around mid-May.

The maximum score on this contest is of 120 points. At first glance, it appears to be a simple contest. However, many of the problems require excellent observation and a great attention to detail. The contest is professionally put together. In our experience, the students who achieve top scores on Kangaroo are the same who qualify for AIME and USAMO. It is extremely difficult and rare for a student to obtain a full score on Kangaroo.

Looking at the history of these awards we see that awards start at around 75 points, in order to provide encouragement and motivate students. The award ceremony is important because younger students get inspired by the older students' achievements. For students who are talented mathematicians, it is important to feel that they are not alone in this and that math is not 'un-cool'. At Goods of the Mind, we believe that building a community of math scholars across the 1-12 range of ages will energize the math landscape and will provide talented students with a network of their own, where they feel supported.

The students who received awards come from the whole of Northern California and have competed at the following centers: Evergreen School, Champion School, Chinese American Cooperation Council in Pleasanton, Russian School of Math in San Jose, Diablo Valley Math Kangaroos from Clayton, St. Andrew's Episcopal, Lord's Grace, Vida John's group in Redwood City, L.P. Collins Elementary, Goods of the Mind LLC., Stevenson Elementary in Mountain View, Old Orchard School in Campbell. 'It takes a whole village to raise a child.' is an African saying. Each student's success is the result of his/her talent as well as of their parents' and coaches' dedication. We are honored to play a part in this success by building a supportive environment.