Fantastic results in the Senior Maths Challenge

And good luck to those taking part this week! (Whole School - 30/01/2017)

Back before the Christmas break, thirty NUAST Sixth Form students took part in the nationally run Senior Maths Challenge.

Jack Badley, year 12, managed to achieve Gold in the 90 minute challenge and as a result came in the top 10% in the country, making it to the next round. Only the top 1,000 qualify and with a final score of 23 out of 25, this is an amazing achievement.

Six students also managed to achieve Silver and 14 got Bronze, something to be very proud of. To prepare for the challenge most participators spend an hour and a half in math’s enrichment each week working on problem solving skills that would help them with their questions on the day.

For the first round students had to answer 25 multiple choice questions covering a range of areas including problem solving and logic based questions. It’s a very challenging and difficult paper to complete, testing students knowledge to the max.

A few weeks later Jack took part in the next round. This time he had three hours to answer just six questions, which shows just how tough it becomes. The aim is to make it to the final round where students will represent their country. Unfortunately Jack didn’t make it this time but he did extremely well to get as far as he did and there’s always next year.

Head of Maths, Chris Watts said: “It’s a fantastic achievement by Jack, we’re really proud of all the students.”

Later this week some of our Year 10’s will take the Intermediate Maths Challenge where they will have one hour to answer 25 multiple choice questions. Good luck to all taking part!