The Grayslake North Math Team competed at IHSA State at the University of Illinois on April 2, 2023.
Alex DeGroh is the head of the Math Team. When asked how his team qualified for State, he explained, “Aiden Kim qualified by placing third in Regionals. The junior and senior eight person team qualified with a minimum qualifying score and placed second; however, the senior team won Regionals and sent the entire senior team down,” DeGroh said.

At Regionals he said that they didn’t do well as a team because only a portion of the team qualified for Regionals.

“Overall, as a team, we didn’t do well because we only qualified a portion of the team. If a school wins Regionals, their entire team gets to compete at State. We did have a great time, though,” DeGroh said.

Junior Aiden Kim placed third at Regionals on the junior eight person team. Kim stated that in order for him and his teammates to get to Regionals, they had to receive a medal or get at least 75 percent of the answers right.

“Teammates for the Algebra II and Pre-calculus competition had to compete in the Regional competition and either receive a medal or score higher than the benchmark score (typically around 75 percent correct answers),” Kim said.

When asked what he personally had to do to prepare for Regionals, Kim clarified, “Use the given practice tests to study for State, getting used to the time (which is not forgiving) and the questions which they ask.”

When asked how he felt the team did overall, Kim said, “Not necessarily well. Largely we did not win as a school given our team is composed almost entirely of seniors. The junior/senior eight person team, we did not score necessarily well on, but many times people did not show up to meetings since they had other events preoccupying their schedules. (I myself am guilty of this.)”

Out of everyone that competed in the Regionals competition, Kim believes that the most important person at the competition was Mr. DeGroh due to the fact that he was the one who rented and drove the bus, booked the hotels, and planned team meals.

“In complete honesty, DeGroh. Despite everything, his willingness to drive the team in a bus for eight hours, book a hotel, plan meals, and every other voluntary service make us all indebted to him for his invaluable contribution,” Kim said.