Year after year, students from Living Wisdom School perform extremely well on two difficult international tests of mathematics achievement.
In most schools, only the most gifted students take the Math Olympiads and American Mathematics Competition exams for junior-high students (AMC 8).
In contrast, at LWS, all students in grades 3-8 take these challenging tests. The results are presented below.
Most schools offer special tutoring for top math students who plan to take these tests. At Living Wisdom, our regular math curriculum is the only preparation we offer (although individual students may seek extra preparation on their own).
For an in-depth conversation about how middle-schoolers learn math at LWS, follow the link to this very interesting interview with middle-school teacher Gary McSweeney.
The AMC 8
The AMC 8 for junior-high students includes many problems that demand math skills and experience far beyond those provided in most junior high math classes.
Congratulations to Freya Edholm of LWS, who achieved a perfect score of 25 – the only perfect score by a sixth-grader in the state of California. Of the 20,571 sixth-graders who took the AMC 8 worldwide, only 6 achieved a perfect 25. And of the 152,691 students in grades 5-8 worldwide who took the AMC 8, only 225 students achieved a perfect score. The average score was 10.67.
The Math Olympiads
In 2013, 103,592 students participated in the Olympiads from 49 states, 9 American territories, and 25 foreign countries. In most schools, only the best math students participate, but at LWS all students take the Olympiad M exam for 8th grade and below and the Olympiad E for 6th grade and below.
Of the 19,541 students who took the Olympiad M exam for 8th grade and below, Freya Edholm of Living Wisdom School was the only 6th-grade girl in the state of California to achieve a perfect score of 25. Congratulations, Freya!
Elizabeth Peters and Andrew Dollente won the silver pin for scoring 17 and 19 points respectively.