Maths Challenges 2022
Posted on: April 29th 2022School News
Congratulations to all our pupils who have recently competed in Maths competitions and have received awards. Year 12 pupils entered the Liverpool Maths Open Challenge with some fantastic results – Michael Z was awarded Second prize, Zac S received Third prize and Mikael B and Raem H achieved Highly Commended.
Zak commented: “I have participated in the Liverpool Maths Challenges every year during the February half term holidays, since I was in Year 7. The challenge consists of a few problems which require out-of-the-box thinking and creative solutions. The themes of this year’s puzzles ranged from keeping track of motorbike races to measuring picture frames with a piece of string. I enjoyed attempting the problems because they use the knowledge that I have learnt in Maths lessons, but in inventive ways beyond the scope of the A-level syllabus. The marks are awarded for the thought process and not for correct answers, so I had left some of the trickier questions uncompleted. As a result I was delighted and quite surprised to find out how well I had done!”.
There was also widespread success in the MEM Challenge and Senior Challenge, which attracts around 2,000 entries annually. Frank Z, Sid Y, Riccardo S and Diseye D were awarded Third prize; Giuseppe P was awarded Second prize; Aadam S, William Z, Zach B, Taige Y, Kiran M, Hercules S, Tej V and Pratham S all received Highly Commended; and Ashmit R and Taran N received Certificate of Merit. These entries ranged from pupils in year 6 – year 10.
Year 8 pupil Zach spoke about his experiences: “This is the second year I have completed the MEM. I really enjoy the challenge of solving each of the problems, they have multiple approaches and are always fun to solve.”
Year 9 pupil Riccardo commented on the challenges: “The Merseyside math challenge is something I really enjoy, as it gives you some math problems to solve using both logic and maths. Since you can do them at home, you have time to think about the math problems. The hardest bit is not finding the answer, but turning my scribbles of working out into a neat explanation, working out and answer. Overall, it was great fun this year, and I look forward to doing it again next year!”
Year 10 pupil Pratham spoke about the range of topics: “The challenge covered a range of topics, of which some suited my skill set (this would have been the case for everyone), which allowed for a good mix of questions, making the challenge enjoyable. I viewed the questions like the final few in a UKMT Kangaroo, but with one or two additional steps, so they were difficult, without the answer being too far out of reach”.
A special mention to William Z who is in year 6 and received Highly Commended in the Challenge, which is usually aimed for pupils in years 7 and 8 in Senior School.
Congratulations to everyone for their hard work and determination which led them to achieve some very impressive results!
