Math club “Mu Alpha Theta” calculates rapid success

Eleventh time defending state champions, the highly victorious and freakishly intelligent math club of West High, also known as Mu Alpha Theta, has been around for roughly 25 years.he adviser, James Kirpes, has been there for 18 years. About 75 students throughout the school are part of the math club and anyone is welcome to join. The students love the competition and challenges they face in math club.

“I joined math club because I enjoy challenging myself and thought it would be a great experience, and it has,” said Ben Schroeder ‘18. “The competitions are challenging, but I always learn new things about math and myself.”

Mu Alpha Theta meets after school every Tuesday until around 4:30. The students receive candy and often talk about the most recent competition. They don’t have uniforms, , “ but every year in Madison, Wisconsin, we have a tradition to wear the ugliest suits we own,” Kirpes said.

They partake in competitions every three weeks, and when asked how many they have won, Max ‘17 said, “18 times however many competitions we compete in.” Their most recent competition took place at Mount Mercy and they brought four teams taking 1-4 in place.

In 2015 Mu Alpha Theta had 12 out of 12 first place finishes, including state math championships, and the multi-state math league championship. That also includes 16 consecutive wins at the University of Wisconsin Platteville’s event.

Math competitions are traditionally four different tests that are taken to determine the winner. There is the sprint test, the target test, the team test, and the relay round. These are all timed, and contribute to the final result.

The math club is very positive about their skills; but do they have what it takes to rival WSS in a math competition?

Max and Kevin

Connor and Cade

We took a ten minute competition. In ten minutes, Cade and I answered 25 questions while Max and Kevin (from the math club) answered 36. Cade and I got 3 correct while math club got 32.