The 2024–25 school year kicked off with an honor and celebration for Taft’s Mathematics Team: They were presented with the hardware they earned in the 2023–24 New England Mathematics League (NEML) competition. For the third consecutive year, the team bested all of regional competitors, which included perennially high-scoring teams from Hotchkiss and Kent.

The NEML competition field typically includes more than 120 teams and nearly 800 students. Taft’s overall score placed the team in the top 10% of finishers overall. Kevin Jin ’25 and Michael Xu ’25, were also recognized for their cumulative work across all six contests, which placed them among the top 6% of all competitors.

The annual New England Mathematics League (NEML) competition spans the academic year and challenges competitors at the highest level. The event is built on six monthly mathematics challenges, starting in November of each academic year. The monthly contests, completed on-site, challenge competitors with sets of six problems of increasing complexity. Students work individually to solve each problem, earning one point for each correct answer; each team reports its top five scores from the round to build a cumulative ranking.

Taft’s Mathematics Team is an afternoon activity open to everyone on campus with an interest in exploring mathematics through practice, discussion, and competition. Mathletes compete in events at the local, national, and international level, including NEML, The American Mathematics Competition (AMC), and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination.