Published: May 16, 2008 01:02 am         

'I just like math'

CADDO MILLS — What is 32 squared?

“1,024,” responds Caddo Mills High School junior Jeremy Smith without hesitation. Smith is able to work the problem out in his head in less than 10 seconds.

Smith’s talent for completing calculations in his head led him to a state championship in the 2A UIL Number Sense competition in Austin recently.

He also won first place at the UIL Math competition.

“(The competitors) are like the best of the best though,” Smith explained of the 20 to 30 students he competed against. Those 20 to 30 students were narrowed down from more than a thousand.

It is the first time in Caddo Mills ISD history that a student has won one — let alone — two math UIL competitions, said Curriculum Director Knel Gandy.

“This one is really big,” Gandy explained.

Smith said he had been studying and preparing for more than a year before taking home the top prizes in two-out-of-three math categories during the statewide competition.

“I took a bunch of tests,” Smith said. “I studied and worked hard.”

His studying paid off as he took home the victory in the Math division by a 90 point margin.

“That’s pretty big,” he said, explaining that out of a perfect 360, he scored a 294. His closest competitor scored a 204.

But his Number Sense victory is perhaps more impressive to non-math lovers. Students competing the category have 10 minutes to work out 80 complicated math problems in their heads. No pencils, paper or calculators allowed.

“It’s a very hard competition,” he said. One example of a problem he had to figure out is how many inches 1 mile plus 2 yards plus 3 feet equals.

In the Number Sense competition he scored a 215 out of 400.

His scores helped lead the Caddo Mills team to two first place team victories in he Number Sense and Math categories as well, Gandy said. It’s the first time the district has taken first place in the those team categories.

Smith said the school has given him recognition for his efforts and while his classmates don’t seem quite as excited as he is, they’re happy for him.

“They don’t seem that excited, but they’re congratulating me,” he said. The CMISD school board will also recognize him at their next meeting, Gandy said.

Next year, Smith said he’ll try to go three-for-three in the math categories and retain his two state titles.

“I just like math,” he said. “It’s fun to me.”