The Middle School Mathematician Aakash Ahuja Jr.

When asked about his goals for the future, the young Aakash Ahuja Jr. is humble, unlike most pre-teens his age. Being an intelligent child, he understands that not all kids possess such an innate understanding of math and numbers like he does, and he wants to open a tutoring center in the community to help all students. His ultimate goal is the computer engineering program at MIT, which judging by his current trajectory, isn’t far away. At the age of twelve, Aakash Ahuja Jr. had already challenged himself to take the SAT, where he scored a 710 in the math section, placing him in the 96th percentile of all test-takers.
His father, Dr. Aakash Ahuja, emigrated to the United States in 2001 at the age of 25. With over twenty years of experience working in the California State Prison system, the doctor of Psychiatry and his wife decided in 2014 to move their two small children to the Santa Clarita Valley, in search of a good school district. Their son, Aakash Jr. was born in 2010 and had already been showing a proclivity for numbers by the time he was three years old.
His father remembers moments when his young son would ask him to think of a random date, let’s say March 19, 1944, and Aakash without hesitation could figure out the day of week it was (Sunday). The adults were amazed at how such a small child could come up with such complex formulas in his head seemingly without any trouble; he was practically the definition of a “gifted” child.
When asked about his very first math competition, Aakash responds somewhere around the first or second grade. At the age where this author was busy playing with American Girl dolls, he was already competing against kids in higher age brackets. Aakash remembers he wasn’t even supposed to be there, as he was technically too young to compete yet. But the drive to challenge and competition couldn’t stop Aakash Ahuja Jr. from achieving his goals.
He has participated in over twenty competitions and when asked, he couldn’t possibly recall them all. This year, he was able to participate in MathCON, the National Student Math Competition. 26,000 kids participated from around the country in the First round and about 620 made it to the final round held in Chicago, where Aakash was awarded with an Honorable Mention Medal. He currently holds the trophy for the MOEMS, the Mathematical Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School where he scored a 24 out of 25 and earned the prestigious Gold Pin awarded to Top 2 percentile achievers. He also earned the First prize in his school in AMC8 (the American Math Competition in 2023). He currently holds the trophy for the MOEMS, the Mathematical Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School where he scored a 24 out of 25 and earned gold.
After taking the SAT and scoring higher than most actual high-school students, he admits to be enjoying a well-deserved break. With the school year ending and summer beginning, the competition season has officially come to an end. He plans to spend his time travelling, playing Chess, as well as table tennis and cricket.
Next year he is excited to participate in MathCounts, a nationwide middle school math competition, AMC 8 as well as MOEMS again to defend his title. For the twelve-year-old Aakash, making friends all across the country and solving math problems is the best experience he could ask for. With a proud and supportive family behind him, there’s nothing he can’t accomplish.

Comments