Hillsborough Shares Second-Place Finish in State Math Competition

Hillsborough High School students Christopher Zhang, Trisha Datta, Albert Liu, David Pulsifer, Alan Chen, Scott Lee, Alan Liu and Bertha Wang paced the school's 80-member team in the annual statewide math competition, leading Hillsborough to a second-place tie, the school announced.

The results of the 37th annual competition, sponsored by the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New Jersey, placed Hillsborough High School in second place with math rival East Brunswick High School in the Gamma division. The Gamma division consists of large high schools with more than 1,250 students. 

“This is an excellent result in a very challenging statewide competition,” Stephen Raff, Hillsborough High School math teacher and advisor of the HHS Math Team, said. “This highlights the terrific mathematical talent we have at HHS.” 

Along with thousands of students around the state, approximately 80 Hillsborough High School students participated in the AMTNJ sponsored math competition. Each participating student was administered a paper test.

At the conclusion of the test, all tests were collected and scored using a rubric provided by the AMTNJ. Then each high school math team advisor submitted the top scoring students’ tests to AMTNJ by mail. 

Each high school’s team score was based on the sum of the top five scores earned by the students. Hillsborough’s top scoring students were Christopher Zhang, Trisha Datta, Albert Liu, David Pulsifer, Alan Chen, Scott Lee, Alan Liu and Bertha Wang. 

The HHS Math Team competes in state, regional and national competitions during the school year. In February, the team will compete in the American Mathematics Competition—the largest and most prestigious national high school mathematics competition.