James Andress of Oak Ridge High School was one of 10 students who won a $4,000 annual scholarship to the University of Tennessee in an Oct. 25 math contest.
The UT-Pro2Serve Math Contest featured almost 600 students from 47 high schools.
Other scholarship winners included three students from Farragut High School in Knoxville—Melissa Yu, Alexander Selwitz, and Hyungdon Joo—and students in Brentwood, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Hendersonville, and Memphis.
The press release said the contest had two parts. All participants took a multiple-choice test on algebra and geometry called the Fundamental Exams of Remarkable Mathematical Ability and Talent (FERMAT I).
The five top scorers received a plaque. Andress was one of the top scorers. Lam Tran of Farragut High School was also a winner.
Students with the top 50 scores on the FERMAT I moved on to the FERMAT II, which included eight essay questions requiring creative and original thinking. All exams were hand-graded by faculty members from UT’s Department of Mathematics.
The second part of the contest was the Math Bowl, a double-elimination team competition. Sixty-four high school teams competed head-to-head to be the fastest to answer 10 math questions correctly, the press release said.
The contest was presented by the UT College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Mathematics and UT alumnus Barry Goss and his technical and engineering company Professional Project Services Inc., more commonly known as Pro2Serve.
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