On April 6th 2024 the first Hanoi Youth Math Conference (HYMC) was held in UNIS Hanoi. HYMC is a fun middle school math competition for passionate and dedicated mathematicians. 4 high school students (Minh, Koki, Duc, BJ) who are passionate about math started planning this event in November. 

After all 16 participants arrived at B8B and organized themselves into teams, the event started off with a grand opening ceremony where the leaders introduced the 4 different rounds. 2 of them were individual rounds and 2 of them were team rounds. Mr. Taggart also brought cookies for everyone to enjoy!

Everyone transferred over to the sports center to begin our first round. It was an exciting physical round where each team had to quickly solve math problems and run around the track as fast as possible. Even though the round was quite unorthodox (since it required both math skills and physical skills), all participants were actively taking part in this round.

Round 2 required extra focus from all participants as they individually attempted to solve 60 questions within 60 minutes. The questions were split into easy, medium, and hard questions. There were some difficult questions in the exam for middle school students but everyone was quite successful in the round.

The third round was the most successful and enjoyed among the participants. 50% of the participants responded that their favorite round was the 3rd round. This round was a team round where whichever team got the answer the fastest would receive a point. This round was also considered the hardest round but all the participants had strong mathematical backgrounds to be able to solve the questions. 

The final round was a quiet and chill individual round where the participants had 30 minutes to figure out a phone number. The phone number was a combination of the answers to the questions. The questions included pattern finding and word problems. It was a great way for participants to calm down after an energetic 3rd round.

Here are some responses from the participants after the conference:

• It was difficult, but fun. It really showed me where I stood in mathematics and which direction I should improve in. I really loved it!
• I felt included on my team and in general it was fun.
• Challenges your math skills and collaboration
• I felt very welcomed to be here

Congratulations to Emilie, Seunghwan, Tran Nhan, and Yu Jeong for being first place for the team rounds. Congratulations to the individual round winners: Yu Jeong (1st), Yeonjae (2nd), and Minseo (3rd).