Ella saunters over, her fresh tan giving her that casual-relaxed look that Mimi can’t help but envy. “Hey, let’s see if I stand a chance on this thing.”

The two of them bend over the textbook. After a few minutes, Shoshana turns around to Bina, who’s sitting behind, and a few others amble over to join. Something about the scene makes Mimi feel good, feel right. Ella, Shoshana, the others, there’s something new in the air between them, something relaxed. Like it’s okay to open up and expand a little. Not to keep apart as a tight foursome, not to need to huddle in a tight knot in order to feel secure.

“Feeling left out?” Tzippy asks teasingly, motioning the growing group huddled over Shoshana’s textbook.

Not at all, Mimi wants to say, a wave of peacefulness washing over here. But she doesn’t need to say it out loud. Tzippy will feel it too.

“Totally,” she says instead, deadpan. “Maybe we should get a math textbook out just to look the part.”

They both crack up again.

The room is absolutely still as Mrs. Price distributes the thick stapled booklets, face down. Slowly, deliberately, she places one on each girl’s desk, and then makes her way to the front of the room.

“Girls, do you all have a pen? A pencil? Extra paper?”

There are nods, mm-hmms, a sprinkling of louder responses. Mrs. Price places her finger on her lips, and the room stills again.

“Then we’re going to start. Turn over your papers, and you may begin.”

A collective rustle, the clicking of pens, the tiny sounds of scribbling as girls write their names on the front page and begin.

Mimi opens the booklet.

In a game of chess, there are three possibilities: win, draw, lose, she reads.

Math?

Something vague stirs in her mind. Probability, the chance of a specific outcome, okay, she guesses this must be an easier question to start with, but she’s never really got the hang of these kinds of questions. Still, she has a couple of hours to go, nothing better to do with her time, and it’s not being graded anyway, so why not give it a try?

Without the pressure of report cards and grades, somehow it doesn’t matter anymore what everyone else is doing. It doesn’t matter that Shoshana’s on the second page already, pen skimming the paper until it’s almost a blur, as if she’s worried about running out of time. It doesn’t matter that her classmates know the material better than she does; that she hasn’t studied; that math has been a disaster for her recently.

It doesn’t even matter that somewhere on the other side of the room, Kayla is no doubt filling out her tenth flawless answer.

All that matters is that she, Mimi, will sit here and try her best, knowing this is not about winning, it’s about trying.

Two hours later, Mimi closes the booklet, flexes her wrist. Done. And there’s just under ten minutes to go. She could review her answers, though she isn’t sure she’ll have any more insight than she did back when she filled it out. Or… she can sit, and revel in the moment.

She filled out an entire math challenge, every answer, and she feels totally, completely calm.

She’s not under any illusions of winning awards, she’ll leave that for Kayla. Even Shoshana or a few others stand a chance, she supposes. But she filled out an entire math test without the usual stress and anxiety about the grades, and somehow, she feels like she’s done something to be proud of.

Kayla Weiss, math challenge review

04/27/2022, 7:59 pm

To discuss with Mrs. Price at earliest opportunity

In questions 12-14 (algebraic proofs), was it necessary to have written out explanation on work in words, or enough to demonstrate with mathematical symbols? (I did write out entire proof in words, just in case, but I would like to know whether it was indeed necessary.)

Was the correct method for the question on mathematically similar 3D objects to find the complete volume of A, then draw on the information provided to find first C, and then B?

I believe there was a mistake in the final question, which drew on mathematical principles  to solve a complex architectural problem (shelving units meeting ceiling and the space needed between shelves and wall to provide for the decorative brackets). The question did not provide a crucial piece of information (the length of the bracket’s hypotenuse; to which could be applied Pythagoras’ Theorem to find the missing side). I gave six different options based on various common sense possibilities, but the complete answer was not obtainable.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Jr., Issue 933)