Competition + Collaboration + Curiosity = Mathematics, the Lycée Way!

MARCH 14 is Pi Day — the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (3.14...), observed on the fourteenth day of the third month every year. It is also, not coincidentally, the International Day of Mathematics. In France, it marks the heart of the Semaine des Mathématiques, a national week dedicated to promoting the beauty and relevance of math across all grade levels. At the Lycée this year, the celebrations stretched well beyond a single day — with four major events unfolding across two weeks, from our youngest students all the way to our seniors.

The Course aux Nombres | MARCH 14 to 25

The Course aux Nombres is a national math competition open to students from elementary school through high school, held each year during the Semaine des Mathématiques. Students answer 30 mental math questions individually in just ten minutes — no written calculations allowed — covering a wide range of topics including number sense, proportionality, measurement, and geometry. Fast, focused, and surprisingly addictive, it is the kind of challenge that builds mathematical reflexes while making students realize just how much they know. This year, the first round of the competition took place at the Lycée between MARCH 14 and MARCH 25.

Concours Général des Lycées | MARCH 17

Our Terminale students took on one of France's most prestigious academic competitions. The Concours Général, created in 1747, is the most prestigious academic competition held every year between students of Première and Terminale in almost all subjects taught in French high schools. The mathematics exam lasts five hours and tests students on complex problems requiring a deep mastery of the Terminale mathematics curriculum.  Past laureates include Jean Jaurès, Emmanuel Macron, Louis Pasteur, and Charles Baudelaire — a reminder of just how storied this competition is. Teachers may nominate no more than 10% of their eligible students, which means that at the Lycée, only two students were selected to compete this year. That selectivity is the point: to sit the Concours Général is already a distinction in itself, a recognition from your own teachers that you are among the very best.

Olympiades de Mathématiques • Grade 11 | MARCH 18

Here is where things get genuinely remarkable. The Olympiades de Mathématiques de Première is a national and academic competition created in 2000 by the French Ministry of Education, designed to develop a love of mathematics among Grade 11 students across all tracks. The exam combines individual problem-solving with a team component, and the best copies are forwarded to a national jury. This year, our Grade 11 students sat the exam on MARCH 18 — while on their Global Learning trip to Tahiti. Mathematics doesn't take a vacation, and neither do they. Back in San Francisco, a second group of Grade 11 students who were not on the trip sat the same exam on campus — ensuring no one missed the opportunity. And in a first this year, two Grade 10 students also rose to the challenge: while students in their year are now eligible to participate, they compete internally and are not included in the national rankings. That two of them chose to take the exam anyway says something about the mathematical culture we are building here.

Olympiades de Mathématiques • Grade 8 | MARCH 24

The Olympiades de Mathématiques de Quatrième is open to all Grade 8 students in public and private schools, and features both individual and team problem-solving components. The problems draw on middle school curriculum but are presented in an open-ended way, leaving room for student initiative — with reasoning and written communication weighted heavily in the evaluation. 

Math en Jeans : An Entire Year, Culminating This Month

Woven through all of this is Math en Jeans, our longest-running mathematics research program — one we covered in detail in a recent post. Thirty-five students from Grade 8 through senior year spent months working in small teams on open problems posed by professional researchers, presenting their findings at the North America MEJ conference held this year right here in San Francisco. The conference brings together French schools in the ZAN — the Zone Amérique du Nord — creating a rare opportunity for students to build a genuine peer network across the continent. Beyond the intellectual experience, participating in Math en Jeans carries real weight: it is the kind of rigorous, self-directed academic work that stands out in university applications, demonstrating curiosity, perseverance, and a capacity for independent thinking. As math teacher Nicolas LEGATELOIS put it: "The important thing is to enjoy doing math as a team and to experience the intellectual satisfaction of solving a complex problem, either partially or completely."

AMC and MathCounts: Bridging Both Worlds

The Lycée's mathematical life extends beyond the French curriculum. Our students also participate in two major American competitions — MathCounts and the AMC (American Mathematics Competition) — which bring an important additional dimension to our program. These competitions are fully open to students in our International Track, ensuring that all members of our community, regardless of the academic path they follow, have meaningful opportunities to challenge themselves mathematically and compete at a high level. They also reflect the Lycée's unique position at the intersection of two educational traditions — and the advantage that comes with navigating both.

Why It All Matters: Different Events, Different Skills, One Mathematical Culture

What makes this month — and these programs — so valuable is precisely their variety. No single competition captures the full picture of what it means to be mathematically strong, and at the Lycée, students are invited to develop themselves across a genuinely broad spectrum.

The Course aux Nombres rewards speed, automaticity, and number fluency — the ability to think fast and trust your instincts. The Olympiades ask something different: to slow down, reason carefully, write clearly, and in the team component, to think alongside someone else. Math en Jeans takes that collaborative spirit further still, asking students to live with a problem for months, sit with uncertainty, and find their own path through it — the closest thing to real mathematical research that secondary school can offer.

And then there is the Concours Général: in a class of its own. To be nominated is already an honor. To sit a five-hour exam on problems designed to stretch even the sharpest mathematical minds — and to do so as a student at a French school in San Francisco, competing on the same terms as students anywhere in France — speaks to the level of preparation and ambition our faculty and students bring to this discipline.

For many students, these competitions and programs open doors to highly selective summer camps and academic programs - at institutions such as Johns Hopkins, MIT, COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science), and Brown — where they go to discover new fields, push their thinking, and find intellectual peers from around the world. These experiences enrich their academic journey in ways that go far beyond a grade or a ranking: they help students understand what they love, what they are capable of, and who they want to become. And they matter to universities too — not as trophies, but as evidence of a student who sought out challenge for its own sake.

Taken together, these events offer a picture of what mathematical culture looks like at the Lycée. Not just a subject, but a way of thinking.