The 1999 SMAAC High School Invitational occurred on February 6 and included teams representing six high schools: Aurora, Barberton, Berea, Massillon Perry, Akron St. Vincent/St. Mary, and Triway. The teams converged at Taylor Hall early that brisk morning, being greeted with hot chocolate, coffee, and doughnuts, and the students remained in Wooster through mid-afternoon. The contest consisted of an individual test and a team test, which were followed by a friendly scavenger hunt, lunch at Lowry, and an awards ceremony.

     The teams qualified for the test by scoring well on a preliminary exam. This component of the competition was offered to 250 high schools, public and private, from the eastern border of Ohio to Mansfield and from counties just south of Wayne all the way north to Lake Erie. The six teams listed above survived this first round, beating out around 30 other teams.

     The individual test, the first part of the competition to occur on February 6, was made up of 22 questions. These multiple choice questions ranged from algebra to trigonometry and even included some basic calculus. Coming out of this round, three of the teams had nearly the same score.

     Six questions long, the team test proved to be quite challenging. The questions on this portion required more ingenuity than typical high school-level questions. The problems included disciplines not often found in secondary school (such as combinatorics). Following this half of the test, we thought we had a definite winner in St. Vincent/St. Mary even though they beat out Berea by only one half of one point.

     The day progressed with a scavenger hunt. For the scavenger hunt, the teams were rearranged so that no two people from the same school were on the same hunt. Then, these new teams were let loose in Taylor to answer questions such as "What is the serial number on the light above Professor Hampton's door?", "What are the average scores of the Math Department and the Physics Department from the Taylor Bowl, since its inception?" (Math won, of course!), and "What is the solution to number 56 on page 11 of the yellow linear algebra book (across from Professor Hampton's door)?"

     Following a glorious lunch at Lowry, the high school teams, then reunited and returned to Taylor for the awards ceremony. Monetary awards and trophies were given to the top two individual scorers and the top three teams. Upon returning the graded tests to the teams, it was brought to our attention that one question on the team test could have multiple answers.

     Upon reviewing the problem, it turned out that we had neglected to include in the written question an assumption that served to limit the answer. Having committed the error, we had to readjust the teams' scores, putting Berea in first place! Despite this minor controversy, the day proved quite enjoyable for both the high school and the college students, and we learned an important lesson when it comes to writing questions for tests: be sure there are no ambiguities!