“The Dominators” earn first perfect score in iTest history, win USA national title

(Nashville, TN) – The iTest, also known as the American High School Internet Mathematics Competition (“AHSIMC”), awarded its first perfect score of 101 to “The Dominators,” a team of students from five different high schools across the country. These five students worked together using instant messaging software and a “rapid barrage” of emails in winning the 2005 iTest and claiming the United States Mathematics National Championship.

Zhou Fan, the team’s captain, attends Parsippany Hills High School in Parsippany, New Jersey, while Alex Yang, Alice Tzeng, Yi Sun, and Daniel Litt attend West Windsor-Plainsboro High School (New Jersey), Lafayette High School (Louisiana), The Harker School (California), and Orange High School (Ohio), respectively.

The 2005 iTest took place from September 16 through September 20, and was free to all participating students and schools. Over 31,000 students from hundreds of schools nationwide participated in the second year of what educators call “a groundbreaking educational experience.” The winning team members will receive iPod Nanos and a package of iPod accessories, courtesy of Griffin Technology.

The 2005 runner-up was a team of students from Ames High School in Ames, Iowa. Joshua Moloney, Qi Gan, Kevin Lu, Xin Pan, and James Pringle took second place nationally with a score of 97. Teams from Vestavia Hills High School (Alabama) and Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (Virginia) tied for third place with a score of 91.

The 2005 iTest Sponsor’s Award for Leadership was awarded to Leona Penner of Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, for her dedication to making her students as successful as possible. Natasha Doty, who captained her team to a third place finish in Nebraska and a top 100 finish nationally, remarks that “Ms. Penner has shown me that even though the answer may not be apparent, if I continue to work, my struggles will lead to success.”

The 2005 iTest Sponsor’s Award for Exceptional Teaching was awarded to Dr. Alan Vraspir of the Albuquerque Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for his incredible enthusiasm in the classroom. Dr. Vraspir, in solving a particularly tough mathematics problem for his students, “tends to jump up and down in excitement,” which gets his students fired up to learn more. “Dr. Vraspir led me into the real world of mathematics,” writes one of his students, “and he has shown me much more about math than I would have ever dreamt of.”

Winning the 2005 iTest iNvention Award, a side contest in which students proposed new accessories to build for the iPod Nano, was Garrett Goss of Georgia’s Marist School. He created a schematic for a device that would allow an iPod Nano to be inserted into a laptop’s PCMCIA slot, and in doing so, won an iPod Nano for his efforts.

Winning the 2005 iTest Art Award, which required students to design the 2006 iTest logo for use next year, was student Nash Spence of Montana’s Billings West High School, beating out over 30 other contestants to win an iPod Nano of his own.

The iTest is free to all participating students and schools, thanks to funding provided by iPod accessory manufacturer Griffin Technology. The national event was founded by Bradley Metrock, a Nashville resident and Vanderbilt University graduate.

“The iTest is the fastest growing high school academic event in the United States,” Metrock said. “Because the iTest is completely free to students, teachers, and their schools, every student at every school in America can now access the elite world of competitive mathematics.”

For more information on the iTest, please contact Bradley Metrock at Bradley@AHSIMC.com or 615-972-8833, or visit www.theitest.com.

Titans lost to the lowly Arizona Cardinals. This year is going south in a hurry.

Almost wrapped up the work on the 2005 iTest, with Solutions Guides getting shipped out on Friday. Big time increase in submitted exams, thanks to huge increases in overall nationwide exposure as well as our random iPod Nano giveaway to a random student on a team that submitted an exam for grading.

I'll post a copy of the 2005 iTest Nationwide Awards Announcement press release here when its sent out on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Quick thoughts:

- Back from Beaufort, South Carolina (for the second time) and likely not heading back again anytime soon. Scenic place, but if my cell phone doesn't work, its not going to endear itself to me. Got some good reviews from Actus superiors on the work I did there, but you can chalk that up to a talented cast of characters that were already there.

- How dumb are the Braves to allow Leo Mazzone to run off to another team to be pitching coach? The real error was not locking him up to a nice, fat long-term contract years ago. That streak of 15 straight years of winning the NL East? Adios.

- Speaking of Atlanta, spent Friday night with none other than Mark Presley. Went to see Doom (if you played the game, go see it...just enough creativity on top of all the action/horror to make it worthwhile) and then saw Mark dispatch some helpless duo of clowns on the tennis court in his last regular season league doubles match of the year, 6-1 and 6-2. I'm looking forward to seeing if Chik-Fil-A, his employer, continues to recognize what an asset they've got in their IT department with him and gets him into a position of wide-ranging authority as quickly as possible.

- The Titans will be sending Billy Volek into the fray in their effort to dispatch Arizona tomorrow. I'm ready for the Titans to start beating the living hell out of some people, and it might as well start now, guys. If Tyrone Calico doesn't turn his season around tomorrow, with the strong-armed Volek cannoning balls to him throughout the afternoon, he ought to be cut.

- One person that ought to be cut RIGHT NOW is Daunte Culpepper. Yeah, yeah, talk about his salary, but this pretender has been revealed to be a talentless hack now that Randy Moss has headed west. The Vikings are going to continue losing with or without him, so why not send the scathing message to the team, if you're Zygi Wilf, the owner?

- Heading to Fortune Magazine's Innovation Forum in New York City on Nov. 30-Dec. 1, and may stay Friday, December 2 if I decide to take a day off from work that day. I've already used up 3-4 of my 16 vacation days, and I'm going to need a substantial amount for planned Christmas and summer '06 vacations, so it's not certain yet if I'll take that Friday off. If I do take that Friday off, it'll be to accomplish a couple of key iTest-related tasks. The Innovation Forum is full of huge names and will be great to help me consider new possibilities within my role at Actus. I love events like this!

- I have been getting some spam-bots or something leaving automated messages in my "comments" area of this blog lately, so as of right this second, comments are now disabled on this and subsequent posts. I already know who comes in and out of this blog, and as ought to be apparent, I post what I feel like posting regardless of the audience. If you have a comment, email me or something.

- I have plans to get a week's worth of Guest Bloggers to blog for this Online Travesty in a week coming up real soon. Stay tuned.

Warning: amazing tune below. Go get it for free on iTunes through tomorrow, or after that, use any means necessary. Rare that I get into the whole "playing a song over and over again" thing, which is what I've been doing with this tune for days.


"Over My Head" - The Fray

I never knew.
I never knew that everything was falling through.
That everyone I knew was waiting on a queue...
to turn and run, when all I needed was the truth.

But that's how it's got to be.
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy.
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see...
the smoke, and who's still standing when it clears.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head.
With eight seconds left in overtime, she's on your mind, she's on your mind...

Let's rearrange.
I wish you were a stranger I could disengage.
Say that we agree, and then never change.
Soften a bit until we all just get along...

...but that's disregard.
Find another friend, and you discard.
As you lose the argument in a cable car,
hanging above as the canyon comes between.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head.
With eight seconds left in overtime, she's on your mind, she's on your mind...

And suddenly, I become a part of your past.
I'm becoming the part that don't last.
I'm losing you, and its effortless...

Without a sound, we lose sight of the ground,
in the throw around.
Never thought that you wanted to bring it down...
I won't let it go down till we torch it ourselves.

Everyone knows I'm in over my head...

Back in Nashville, at least for the moment. Great to be back!!

Got the paperwork for the iTest's tax exemption. Sweet.

I was scheduled to begin an audio Podcast for the iTest this month, but I've been thinking now about skipping that and going directly to video Podcasts after the recent announcement by Apple of new video functionality. The videos could obviously be downloaded off the Web as well by people who don't have an iPod or those who would just rather download it to the desktop instead of to the handheld.

Like everything else, a work in progress...

Flying out of Beaufort tomorrow back to Nashville, only to return next Wednesday through the rest of next week.

This is one of the first places I've been that has ZERO CELL PHONE RECEPTION. Maddening, as you might imagine.

Lori got her first job offer today, which is huge. Takes a lot of stress off of her. Its with one of the top firms in the city, and while its going to mean a lot of work...I told her that she's going to be working hard wherever she is, so she might as well make as much money as she can while she's at it, right? Congrats, L, for rocking a tedious and intimidating interview process.

I am looking forward to being home for the weekend, a privilege I had to negotiate as things down here at Beaufort are beginning to turn a corner. It has been an interesting time down here, and certainly a strong learning experience as the "strategic initiatives" I come up with have immediate and tangible outcomes for the company. I can't tell you how gratifying that is. I always have to wonder in amazement how I got an MBA in both finance and "human and organizational performance" (gotta love that one) and then end up in strategy. God has put me in a position to make an impact which is all I ever asked for.

There has been plenty of time to sit around and contemplate things down here, as I have no cell phone reception (as I mentioned previously) as well as no TV or (until two days ago) internet reception in this Actus house I'm staying in while I'm here. I'm staying in this house by my own request to save company costs and learn more about our property, but I'm missing my creature comforts!

Though grading is nearly complete for the 2005 iTest and I have begun planning for the iTest CS, I still am forced to contemplate a major decision for the 2006 iTest. We know we are either one of many competitions that students at a given school may take, or the only national one they will participate in for the entire year. Do we improve our participation numbers by imitating other national competitions, or by attacking them and going on the offensive?

Its a major branding question. It seems logical to take a more rebellious stance, which aligns us with the natural course of being a teenager like our customers. Both the title and prestige of winning the National Championship, as well as the continually-escalating prize structure of the iTest, will pull students in regardless, so its not as risky of a move as it may seem though.

Several readers of this blog took what was known as the AHSME back in the day, which is now called the AMC when they switched names a few years ago. They constitute the only thing standing in the way of the iTest claiming the title of largest national math competition in the United States, which isn't the most necessary of titles, but would make for an unambiguously good way to describe the iTest in the future. They offer a well-written exam (for a price), but as I've noted before in this space, the "prize" for winning is getting to advance to a harder competition for which you get to pay more money to take. And, naturally, the prize for winning THAT exam is taking a multiple-day proof-oriented contest, which could result in you getting to spend your summer doing math. Sound like fun?

They have improved their capital flow slightly out of stagnant to declining growth, which is admirable, but still are standing relatively still.

We aren't going to win the game of "highest level of mathematical respectability" as I don't hold a PhD in math and certainly never will, though the quantity of education behind the test-writers of the AMC exams is at a remarkably high level. Thus, we have changed the rules of the game - we are going after the largest number of participating students.

Since the AMC will never be able to match us in cost (free, baby!) and is too established to take any risks in marketing, we are now playing a game we can actually win.

If our shaping of the iTest brand going forward is done thoughtfully, we will indeed emerge victorious.