Hobbies
Reading, Math, Sitting and Thinking, Efficiency, Running, Table Tennis, Playing Violin

Clubs
Math Team, Computer Team, Physics Team (school’s), Bridge Club

Experience
AMC & AIME (05-06 & 06-07), ARML 05-06, Duke Math Competition 06-07, Princeton Math Competition 06-07, HMMT 06-07, Various Musical Things

Biography
Before I start this, I’d like to note that I was originally an alternate to the camp, and I am only typing this because someone (Jacob Steinhardt) declined his invitation to attend USAICO instead.

I was born in Madras, India on September 23, 1991. Three months later, I moved to Fremont, CA. Then before preschool I moved to Falls Church, VA. During kindergarten, my younger brother was born and I moved again, this time to Herndon, VA, where my family and I currently reside. Fairfax County doesn’t have a very developed elementary school curriculum, and, to improve my education, my parents enrolled me in various math programs. Because of these programs I had, by the end of fourth grade, learned arithmetic, algebra, geometry, precalculus (trig and other miscellaneous stuff) and differential calculus.

I came to middle school and I got my first exposure to contest math through Mathcounts, which I didn’t do very well on in 7th Grade. I also took several non-calculus based physics courses this year through John Hopkins University’s CTY program as well as a calculus course that covered all of single variable calculus. In 8th Grade I met a kid named Daniel Li. He was obsessed with contest math and he showed me that if you put enough work into anything you can do very well. Because of his influence, I made it to the state level in Mathcounts that year but no further. He went on to do many amazing things and we now attend school together.

I have spent the last two years at TJHSST. The school itself requires some explanation. It is a school focused on science and math. It has stockpiled an amazing group of teachers. However, the stimulating environment there is due in large part to the amazing students who attend TJ. The competition among students promotes academic and extracurricular excellence, and it is this quality that is the foundation on which everything at TJ is built. In 9th Grade, I got my first introduction to the AMC contests, although I only got up to the AIME, scoring a 6 on the AIME 2. I also did USACO. I learned a lot of contest math.

I have spent this year developing various biotechnology-related research projects and learning about new topics outside of school, particularly physics. Because of my biology/chemistry focus this year, I have not been able to take physics in school. However, Dr. Dell, our school’s physics teacher, posts everything he does in class online and so I have been using his material and Tipler’s books to learn physics. This year, I have also been a lot more involved with math in general. I scored a 7 on the AIME 1 and I am currently trying to learn Complex Analysis. I look forward to meeting all you campers.