Senior Brian Jones competed with three other students in the “Who Wants to be a Mathematician?” contest Feb. 20 at the Washington Convention Center.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science sponsored the competition as part of its annual Family Science Day. The four competing students were selected based on their scores from a qualifying test administered by their math teachers. During the contest, they answered multiple-choice questions for a chance at the $2,500 grand prize.

Though Jones was in the lead halfway through the competition, he was eliminated after missing a crucial question.

“Those students are very smart,” emcee Mike Breen said after the competition. “I thought Brian was going to win this one, but he didn’t, unfortunately. Everyone did a great job.”

The 30 minute contest covers pre-calculus topics in eight questions that increase in difficulty and point value. Participants are given more time to work on harder questions.

“It’s not about who gets the question first,” math teacher Susan Wildstrom said. “It’s still competitive, but it’s not about speed.”

Wildstrom encouraged her students to come to the competition to support Jones. Though he didn’t win, she was pleased with the results.

“I’m pretty happy that he got one question right that nobody else got right,” she said.