Kevin Huang: Arcadia High’s Second-ever USAMO Qualifier
By AUSD Digital Communications Intern Evelyn Tsoi
Kevin Huang in the Math Team room
“Be a nerd.” That’s Kevin Huang’s advice for mastering mathematics.
A 2024 United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) qualifier, Huang has reached mathematical heights that no Arcadia High student has achieved in decades. While dozens of students each year at Arcadia High and across the country—nearly 159,000 in total—take the Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) American Mathematics Competition (AMC) 10 or 12 test, few move past that. Huang qualified for both the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) and the next exam: USAMO, a nationwide olympiad with only 260-270 students. Huang’s mathematical aptitude is one in hundreds of thousands, and his story is just as unique.
Background
Math was not always Huang’s main academic interest. As a student in China until the start of freshman year, Huang spent much of his middle school years preparing for the rigorous Chinese college entrance exam known as gaokao (高考), a nine-hour exam taken over two days, testing students on Chinese, math, language, and science. This intense preparation left him little time to focus solely on math, and, even if he had been interested, there were no middle school math competitions in China. America, however, offered new opportunities.
Huang guiding Math Team members at the Bay Math League (BML) Competition through the following question: limit sqrt(4x^2+3x)-2x when x approaches to negative infinity
After immigrating to the United States, Huang initially pursued physics before pivoting to mathematics, which he found “somewhat simple” and “beautiful” because it was “black or white and always had a correct answer.” To hone his craft, Huang bought the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) textbook series. Soon, he was dedicating three hours after school every weekday and eight hours over the weekend to studying practicing problems, reviewing, and repeating. You can pick any question from the books today, and Huang will provide a prime explanation. It’s no surprise that he aced the Arcadia Math Challenge (Algebra 2 section) to join Math Team in freshman year and has continued to excel since.
Math Team
Huang describes Math Team as “one of the best academic teams” on campus, largely because of its community. A tight-knit team of 35, Math Team members meet weekly, presenting lectures, practicing problems, and competing on weekends. Huang has been involved in all of that and more. As a sophomore, he was a member, then competitions manager in his junior year, and now, he’s a co-captain who teaches and tests fellow students. Chances are, “if you go to a Math Team tryout,” either internally or externally, Huang “[I] probably wrote those questions.” His contributions extend far beyond question-writing.
A slide from Huang’s favorite lecture topic: number theory.
Through lectures, Huang seizes the opportunity to expose members to curriculum high schools will never present. While most students at Arcadia High will learn Calculus or Statistics at most, Huang teaches concepts like advanced number theory (his favorite lecture topic), a mathematical concept typically reserved for college students. In his words, “number theory is new to students, and we can have fun with it.”
Huang with Math Team members at the Harvard-MIT (HMMT) Mathematics Tournament
For Huang, Math Team extends beyond fun to mastery. As aforementioned, he competed in three progressively difficult stages of the American Mathematical Examination. First, he took both the 75-minutes, 25 multiple-choice question AMC A and B 12 test, open to all high school students. Then, with a qualifying index score, he took the three-hour, 15 short-answer question AME Exam. Finally, with a combined AIME and AMC index score of 260, Huang qualified for the USAMO, a two-day, nine-hour test with six proof-based questions.. The USAMO exam, the “pinnacle of mathematical competition,” tests proofs and theories, requiring students to not only problem-solve but deeply understand rigorous mathematical concepts. Ultimately, Huang scored 13 out of 42 by answering one question correctly and another partially—an incredible feat. His favorite question fittingly, was about number theory.
Looking into the future
While Huang has already excelled in mathematics, he wishes to return to the AMC/AIME/USAMO even stronger next year, hoping to qualify for the invite-only Mathematical Olympiad Program (MOP), a three-week intensive camp at Carnegie Mellon University. Top MOP students are selected and trained for Team USA for the International Mathematical Olympiad.
As he prepares to leave Arcadia High for post-secondary education studying Mathematics, Huang looks back at his high school years in Math Team gratefully. He is thankful for his parents’ support and for the friendships he formed while laughing, eating, and competing. Looking ahead, Huang has ambitions beyond math competitions, with plans to pursue math research.
“Kevin is special because he loves the way it fits together like a puzzle,” Huang’s former Math Team advisor Nils Miller described.
“He enjoys the challenge of finding out how all of the pieces fit together to create one smooth picture.”
Huang is excited about Arcadia High’s Math Team as students become more energetic each year. With recent MAA changes, like removing U.S. citizenship requirements for USAMO and Arcadia High’s continued funding of AMC exams, Huang feels proud of the inclusivity efforts in the math community.
Arcadia High School’s 12 (two not pictured) 2024 American Invitational Mathematics Exam Qualifiers. Huang is located in the back row, second from left.
When asked what advice he would give to fellow students, Huang shared “Give up everything. Math Olympiad is called an olympiad because it is the same as a sport.” He stressed that his success was the sum of sacrifice— like “eating out with friends and trying out for clubs.”
It was a “gamble,” one that required 23 hours a week and an eighth of his day. A gamble that, ultimately, paid off.