Would like to understand how children who do well in the UKMT maths challenges (junior, intermediate etc) prepare, whether they prepare at all etc
DD (year 8) is okayish in maths - in top set and get usually 85% and over in class exams, but not innately brilliant (in my opinion)
I used to teach her maths in primary, specifically for 11plus preparation, but have stopped since end of year 6.
The teaching in class is focused on breadth first, quickly moving from one topic to another, not spending enough time on any one topic to develop deeper understanding. I think the school aims to iterate over these same topics repeatedly for the next few years before GCSE.
For example, I think most of the class can solve simultaneous equation of two variables, but will probably struggle with a third variable and likely to struggle with a complexly worded problem where sentences may not easily be translated into simultaneous equations.
So DD struggles with the UKMT challenges - about the first 50% of the questions are doable, she finds the later half harder.
I feel there is benefit in doing these papers - encourages out of box thinking, helps in developing much deeper understanding of the topic, builds resiliency etc. I am encouraging her to do them seriously (school makes all top set students take the UKMT challenges), but also conflicted that maybe I shouldn't push too hard because unsure whether these problem solving skills are meant to come naturally.
Question is - if your DC does (or did) well in these challenges, did they prepare specifically for such types of questions? Or was school work enough for them to do well?