GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Students from Pitt County Schools went head-to-head in the 21st Annual Math Mania competition on the East Carolina University campus in Greenville on Thursday.

The event featured more than 200 third, fourth and fifth graders solving several rounds of arithmetic against other local schools.

Fifth grader Ian Jones says he has a strategy to find an answer.

“I kind of like 3 x 3 and like what is 3 + 3 and then add 3 to that to get your answer and for like the big multiplication problems, I just do that,” says Jones.

Officials say 21 students from each school with the highest test scores were selected to participate.

Teacher Becky Brinson says it’s important for students to have a solid foundation in math because we use it in life every day.

“If we go to the dollar store for example and something was a dollar, they need to know oh I have to include tax, well how do I do that, they have to multiply that total by 7 percent,” says Brinson.

Fourth grader Cayden Greer says math is his favorite subject and is excited to learn even more in the future.

“I’m doing it because my grades are high…(why are your grades high?) because I get it from my parents…my smarts,” says Greer.

Congratulations to this year’s winner of Math Mania — the students from Wintergreen Elementary School in Winterville.

Officials say the questions used in the competition are derived from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.