Teen Counts On Speed In Math Contest Chinese Immigrant’s Game-Show Craftiness Helps Take First Prize

A 13-year-old from China, who three years ago spoke little English, won a national mathematics contest on Friday and said his winning edge came from pushing the buzzer just before arriving at the answer.

“It came down to concentration, especially on the long word problems, which are very difficult,” said Zhihao Liu, known as “Howard” to his school friends in Wisconsin.

Liu, a seventh-grader at an intermediate school in Shorewood, Wis., a suburb just north of Milwaukee, was one of four students representing Wisconsin in the finals of Mathcounts, a competition founded to encourage student interest in mathematics.

The youngsters competed both as team members and as individuals.

The Wisconsin team scored fifth in the competition. Liu was the highest individual scorer in the written part of the math test. There were 57 teams, 228 players. They called themselves “mathletes.”

Calmly fielding reporters questions after a final, game-show-style contest, Liu called math fun. What’s the fun part? “The feeling that you can solve some tough problems,” he said.

How did he win out over the 10 finalists?

He said his secret was to push the buzzer “just as you are arriving at the answer, so you can get in ahead.”

Was it tough?

“I worked very hard. I practiced at least one hour a day. But at the end the pressure is very great. Your heart beat is like 120. You have to concentrate your mind.”

The winning question: “Shelly’s total cost for a mountain bike is $900, including tax and interest. Her first payment is 25 percent of the cost, and she pays the remainder of the cost in 15 equal monthly payments. How many dollars is one monthly payment?”

Liu explained how he arrived at the answer: “She pays $900 total. A quarter payment is $225. Subtract that from $900 and you get $675. There are 15 equal payments so you divide by 15.”

The winning answer: $45. Liu got a gold medal to hang around his neck and an $8,000 college scholarship.

Liu’s father, now traveling in China, is a researcher in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His mother is a graduate student.

Massachusetts was the winning team. Following in order of rank were: Indiana, California, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Maryland, Michigan, Colorado, Virginia and Florida.

Coming in second among individual contestants was Reid Barton, an eighth-grader in home schooling in Arlington Mass. Third-place winner was Austin Shapiro, an eighth-grader at Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School in Davis, Calif.

The contestants were all asked a series of fun, non-math questions that were printed in their bios in the contest book.

One of the questions asked: What two things would you take to a desert island?

Some contestants listed practical things such as food and water. One wanted a solar-powered computer and a grand piano. Another said he would take a contractor and a real estate agent to the island, expand it, build houses and “make money.”

Liu answered that he’d like to take two things: “determination” and “hope.”