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Original poster

Intermediate Maths Challenge

61 replies

TheSecondOfHerName · 04/02/2016 21:25

Anyone's DC take part in the open round this morning?

DS2 felt that it went well.

Last year he did quite well in the Junior one (gold certificate in the open round and a merit in the Olympiad) but he was in the oldest year group taking part. This year he is in the youngest year group for the Intermediate one, competing with children two years above.

OP posts:
relaxitllbeok · 05/02/2016 10:31

Yup - DS is much more a "can see through a brick wall in time" than a quick thinker! There's always someone on SR saying the competition is harder than last year, though, and usually it isn't. Will be interesting to see the boundaries; the UKMT boundaries in general seem to have been creeping up over the years, and I keep wondering if they'll hike the difficulty to counter that. The questions don't look harder to me, but it's hard to tell.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 05/02/2016 10:27

Studentroom seem to think it was a lot harder so it may just be that relaxit.
It is a concentrated sort of paper - a lot to do in one hour so it is easy to slip up. The olympiads are a lot easier in a funny sort of way, much more time to think.

relaxitllbeok · 05/02/2016 10:21

DS missed out three questions all of which I know he could have done five years ago (he already had distinction at the Cayley four years ago)... Any tips on how to develop reliability, Atia? Here it doesn't really matter, but DS's mode where he stares into space and misses out easy stuff is going to start being a liability soon. I think he's too relaxed rather than too nervous, but it's hard to think what to do that doesn't risk making him nervous (I used to do exam panic, and am very glad he doesn't!) Bribery, maybe.

Original poster
TheSecondOfHerName · 05/02/2016 10:15

He said that he came up with an answer for every question, but it might not have been the correct answer! Grin

OP posts:
cakeisalwaystheanswer · 05/02/2016 09:54

It was actually a lot harder this year and the qualifying marks should be lower. TheSecond/Atia your DCs probably didn't notice!

Original poster
TheSecondOfHerName · 05/02/2016 08:56

Atia that's impressive, especially if they use negative marking.

OP posts:
AtiaoftheJulii · 05/02/2016 07:33

Ds did it too - he got full marks last year, so is hoping for the same again.

HildaFlorence · 05/02/2016 07:23

Ds did it , he seemed nonplussed , it's just something they do .He has also just gone up a level as he's year 9.

JennyWreny · 04/02/2016 21:37

DD did it and was mostly just happy that she missed Presentation Skills lesson!

raspberryrippleicecream · 04/02/2016 21:35

DD did it, but put no effort in and was annoyed at missing drama.

LIZS · 04/02/2016 21:30

Dd did. We'd forgotten all about it tbh. She was more annoyed that she missed getting an exam result as the test ran into her Biology lesson.