Future possibilities involving math excite sophomore Annabella Strathman about excelling.

“There are so many applications for math,” Strathman said. “I’m excited to get to apply my math to more real life applications.”

Strathman said accomplishment in math begins with asking for help and knowing the material as best as possible.

“Asking questions lets you directly get an answer that you don’t understand instead of trying to look for it yourself,” Strathman said.

Math teacher Anson Opara said he thinks students asking teachers for assistance when they don’t understand the lesson helps them be successful.

“A lot of kids don’t want to ask their teachers for help. We don’t have the math resource room this year, so a lot of people just need time and extra help,” Opara said.

Senior Zoë Leuthner said asking questions helps students understand what’s happening in class and keep up with the learning material.

“When students ask questions they can really get a deeper understanding and connect with what they’re learning,” Leuthner said.

Opara said having four years of experience has helped his math students excel more this year than in years past.

“My experience of teaching longer and longer and longer is probably what is most helpful,” Opara said.

According to Opara, math gives students the skills they need, such as running a business.

“Typically (math) ends up being one of the classes you need to go on,” Opara said. “You’re going to have to have some sort of math skills, even though it’s scary, it’s just necessary.”

Leuthner said having a strong math skill set prepares you for the future.

“I think math just gives students a really good way to understand concepts and understand how the world works,” she said. “Math gives students good reasoning and logic skills that are applicable in a lot of places.”

Opara said his goals for his students this year include achieving higher scores on the AP test this spring.

“I want to get more kids to get more fours and fives on the AP Statistics test than they had the year before,” Opara said.

Leuthner said she believes teachers play a large role in preparing students for standardized testing in the spring.

“They give us practice tests before the exam so we could really get a feel of how we would do on something that is very similar to the exam format.”

According to Leuthner, teachers value flexibility and are willing to work with students to find a method of learning that works for them.

“Most of my teachers give students a variety of resources,” said Leuthner. “You can find something that works for you.”

Opara said he wants students to get the help they need when they’re confused about what is going on in the classroom.

“Ask more questions, be vocal when you don’t get it, look for other people to help you, which could be other students, other teachers, just anybody to help,” Opara said.

Strathman said staying on top of work proves to be the key part to success.

“(Make) sure to keep up with the school work. (Math is) really hard sometimes to understand but if you stick with it and go back to the basics you will get it,” Strathman said.

Opara said he aims for this school year to be the best one yet as far as math goes.

“I think this is probably my best year that I’ve had so far. It’s gone really well,” Opara said.