BANGOR – Room A107 at Bangor High School was so quiet Wednesday afternoon that the scratching of pencils against paper seemed loud.

The 14 heads bent over 14 desks were so intent on their math problems no one even looked up when a voice over the intercom announced: “You have two minutes remaining.” The students, however, all started writing faster.

The youngsters in this particular room represented one of six teams Bangor High School had entered into the fifth and final meet this season for the Eastern Maine Math League.

Thirty teams with more than 150 students from schools as far away as Schenck in East Millinocket participated in the regional event.

Like Bangor, many schools had more than one team compete.

Only 10 students from each team were officially entered into the meet, with the top six of those 10 counted toward an overall team score. That arrangement means that even if a student gets all zeros in one meet, it doesn’t necessarily affect the team’s score.

And with questions as difficult as the ones presented Wednesday, low scores are common in these events.

The questions typically look something like this:

“If sin x + cos x = 1/5 and 0 = x < , find the exact value of tan x”

And this:

“A Wall Street stock market analyst sold a monthly newsletter to 500 subscribers at the price of $10 an issue. She discovered that for each $0.25 increase in the monthly price of the newsletter, she would lose two subscribers. For what price should she sell each issue to bring in the greatest total monthly gross income?”

Calculators are only allowed in two of the six rounds conducted per meet.

It may not be easy, but “it’s fun,” said BHS senior Joanna McFarland.

The problems, according to the students, are even more difficult than ones they face in honors and advanced placement classes.

Steve Godsoe, the voice on the intercom and head of BHS’s math department, pointed out that students on math teams often do better on college preparatory tests and advanced placement exams.

Senior Danielle Wright added, “It looks good on your college application.”

Also, the top scorer in the Eastern Maine Math League for the year wins $250. Members of Bangor’s black team in Room A107 Wednesday joked that they did it for the money.

The 10 highest-scoring students over the season from each school go on to compete in the state championship, which is tentatively scheduled for April 10.

As they worked on maintaining or improving their positions Wednesday, the students joked and bantered between rounds. As soon as the papers from one round were collected, team members quickly compared answers.

“That’s what I had,” one girl said.

“Me too,” the other squealed.

“Well, that’s got to be right then,” said a third.

A few minutes later when the next round started, the room silenced again.

Each of the five individual rounds in Wednesday’s meet focused on a different topic from algebra to geometry to trigonometry.

A final team round consisted of questions on all topics. During that sixth round, the students on the Bangor black team pulled their desks into a circle and doled out questions. Two or three teammates worked on each problem. Then they compared answers.

In the end, the Bangor Red team won Wednesday’s meet with 250 points, capturing first place in the Eastern Maine Math League for the season. Maine Central Institute Maroon earned 189 points and John Bapst Purple earned 184.

Bangor High sophomore Joshua Scripture of Bangor Red earned 236 points over the season and won the $250 prize for top scorer in the league.

For complete results and more information, visit the Maine Association of Math Leagues Web site at: www.maml.net.