Age 11
Fayetteville

I get good grades in math, but for me, it’s the hardest subject, and everyone, including my teacher, friends and family, all know that I hate math.

At my school, we have a math bowl and everyone in grades 4 and 5 participate in a test to see which kids get into the math bowl. I always try as hard as I can on tests, and even though I didn’t want to be in the math bowl, I tried hard on this test. I think there were five teams, and on each team there were three people. There weren’t a certain number of people chosen from each class, but instead, the top 15 people were taken from all 100 kids in the fourth grade.

I almost wish I hadn’t tried so hard on the math bowl test, because I ended up being one of the people in the math bowl. This meant that I had to practice my math facts more than ever, and now, if I didn’t know my math facts well, it effected my teammates as well as me. Another reason I was worried about being in the math bowl was that I had to do this math in front of a lot of other people. A lot of other people meant the other 85 fourth graders, and the parents who came, and if I wasn’t nervous before I knew there were that many people, I sure was afterward.

My team ended up winning our school’s math bowl and going on to the County Math Bowl, but we lost the County Math Bowl. We didn’t have any competitions after that.

I think that the people who helped me the most with actually getting into the math bowl were my teacher, Margie Cannella, and my parents. I think that my effort and accuracy on the math bowl test were partly because of them. My parents taught me to always try my hardest and do my best, and Mrs. Cannella made me feel confident about my math before, and during the math bowl.

Once I knew that I was going to be in the math bowl, I think that many other people helped me. My teammates helped me by putting their effort into practicing their math facts, and my friends helped me by doing math problems with me. Also, Mrs. Cannella and my parents helped me even more. They both challenged me by giving me hard math problems, and both made sure I practiced. My younger siblings even helped me by encouraging me.

I think that one of the best things that came out of this was the effect it had on my confidence as far as math goes. I really never used to think that I was too good at math, but after the math bowl, I am a lot more confident, and now that I think I’m better at math, it actually seems a lot easier.