Schools

Regional Junior Says 'Challenge Accepted'

This week's Whiz Kid is Chris Anderson, who can complete the Rubik's Cube in under 20 seconds and had a perfect scores on the SAT as a sophomore.

Each Monday, Hamilton-Wenham Patch will be featuring a different "." This week’s “Whiz Kid” is Chris Anderson.

If you know someone you would like to nominate, leave a comment in the box below or e-mail at robertg@patch.com. Please provide, name, age, school and what makes them so awesome.

Chris Anderson

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Age: 16

School:

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Church: none

Clubs/Sports: I am a member of the College Bowl team, Math Team and Science Team.

I play no sports at the school but do some on my own, particularly golf and snowboarding.

Accomplishments: I was a member of the that is on WGBH, the .

Math Team has done reasonably well (third place, I think) given our chronic shortage of members giving us fewer "mathletes" than other teams.

The regular (non-TV) College Bowl is 13-2 so far this year and won our league last year against private schools like and .

I have (my hobby), placing 27th out of 63 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last month.

Results from Harvard's competition this Saturday are not available yet, though I know I placed at least 16th in a field of about 40.

I have played the piano and clarinet since fifth grade and continue to do so in the free time that junior year in all Honors affords me.

Academically, I have done consistently well in school (4.4 GPA) and got a perfect score of 2400 on the SAT last year (as a sophomore).

Chris' keys to success: In school, I usually enjoy learning just for its own sake, and I am willing to share it to help friends' understanding.

This desire to learn new material has kept me highly motivated, which is essential to succeed.

In addition, this encompasses pretty much all areas of knowledge (though especially math and science), leading to the sort of "random knowledge" needed for College Bowl.

I tend to work better under pressure, which has helped in many situations.

In my opinion, one cannot be successful at something that one does not enjoy doing; as it happens I enjoy school, which is certainly a major benefit.

I tend to work very hard at something once I am interested in it, and I have very high expectations for myself.

The prime example of this is cubing, which I practice a great deal to reach whatever time goal I have set.

My reaction to anything difficult is generally "Challenge accepted!"; I would encourage that you try to accept challenges to see if you can succeed.

Ultimately, you will.


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