Jefferson opened its doors to 203 middle school students for the Varsity Math Team’s annual student-run Intermediate Math Open(TJIMO) on Nov. 3.

The TJIMO was designed to challenge mathematically-talented Northern Virginia middle school students in areas of the subject including proofs, based this year on the game of Nim, and problem-solving, while also giving Math Team members a chance to share their knowledge in the subject. It consisted of both an individual round and team rounds.

The middle-schoolers weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves. “It’s a great experience teaching kids new methods of solving problems. That moment of inspiration you see when somebody sees why an answer is true is amazing to behold,” said Sushruth Reddy, a sophomore student coach.

This year’s competition was especially difficult, with many students not getting more than 10 out of 30 problems on the individual competition. The top individual scorer was Akshaj Kadaveru from Nysmith, whose team also came in first in the team rounds.

The TJ IMO was deemed a success, in part thanks to sponsers like Raytheon, who gave $6,000 for this event over the past two years.