Obviously, winning is never a matter of neither chance nor luck but of determination and quality training. In the recently concluded International Regions Math League (IRML) held last May 29-30, 2009 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA, three divisions were in the overall contest. One is called ARML and it is between American teams and is taken at one of the four regional sites--Penn State, the University of Georgia, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The other two belong to IRML, i.e., IRML has two divisions, one for the international teams that take the contest in America just as the participation of Macau-China, Columbia and the Philippines and the other for international teams that take it in their home country just as teams of Turkey and Indonesia.
ARML or IRML is a mathematics contest designed for Senior high school students and specifically, in USA and other countries, all their contestants are represented by either in Grades 11 or 12.
The contest was given in this order: The Team Round- the team of 15 gets 20 minutes to solve 10 problems. They can work together but they cannot use calculators. Only the answer is graded. The Power Question- the team gets 60 minutes to solve a series of questions based on one idea. Some problems require just a numerical answer, some problems require proofs. The students work together. The Individual Round- in this part the students work separately, no talking is allowed, and no calculators are allowed. The students receive a total of 10 questions in pairs. They have 10 minutes for each pair. The Relay Round- each relay round lasts for 6 minutes. The team of 15 is divided into 5 groups of 3. Each group of 3 has a first person, a second person, and a third person.
Zheng Rong Wu, a 4th year student of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School bested other equally best math wizards in the competition by garnering the gold medal for being a top scorer in the individual round. Furthermore, the Philippines was slated third place in the team competition.
The other members of the Philippine team whose contributions were significant in the bringing home the recognitions were:
The Philippine delegation was spearheaded by the team leaders Mrs. Rechilda Villame and Mr. Misael Jose Fisico, together with the deputy team leader Dr. Ofelia Sison, Mr. Kendrick Chan, Mrs. Clarence Betito and Ms Ma Corazon Santos, parents of the participants went with the group to show their support.