Keen mathsy kids aged 10-14?

[SimultaneousEquation]

www.parallel.org.uk is back and the challenges this week are fab, as are the videos.

If you haven’t tried these before, they’re weekly maths challenges aimed at the highest ability mathematicians in Y7 and Y8 but suited to a rough age range of 10-14. They are great fun for the kids and the harder puzzles come with hints.

Thanks - will check these out for my maths crazy year 7s.

Thank you so much for this. I did the year 7 questions with DS2 this morning and he really enjoyed it. Im always looking for ways to stretch him without it getting too boring. Going to try the year 8 ones with DS1 and DS2 tonight.

Oh, thank you for this, we were waiting for this since summer trials. Bit gutted for missing first week closing date(I assume), but ds will definitely happy.

Does anyone think the questions become a lot easier than pilot ones?

Yes - my daughter has done the first two and pretty disappointed how easy they are. Was hoping for something Junior Kangaroo standard but she said they are much easier.

Yes, I think this is a whole lot easier, which is sort of disappointing. The questions are more inclusive, which is good, but less top top set and more “bright child can do without much head scratching”. The videos are excellent though, and get the children to engage with the topic in a different way.

I thought the Y7 one this week was way too easy but i remember ds struggling with the homeomorphic graph one in the pilot.

DS (year 7) enjoyed them but has easily got 100% both weeks. If I change his account to year 8 will he only be able to do year 8 problems? He would like to do both.

Hopefully they may adjust the difficulty after so many children getting full/near full marks.
It is annoying that you can't choose yr7 or yr8, they seem to assign according to registered age.
You can still try yr8 questions, but if you are not signed in, you can't get marked or see the solutions.
I was thinking about making second account in different age.

I contacted them about the fact you can’t do both - it’s because they have limited resources and want to use the Y8 material again next year.

Oh, thank you for letting us know.

Yes thanks - it's a shame

Not sure how he's doing it but my DS is doing year 7 and year 8 from the same account.

Mum, does it get marked on both ?

Yes it does. Also it marks them immediately and we don't have to wait till end of the week. I will check how he is switching from one to the other

We got a separate account for Y6 ds to do the Y8. Still a bit on the easy side, but better than the Y7 stuff.

I think I will set up a second account for DS for next week so he can choose to do the year 8 if he wants. He is enjoying the year 7 but has got 100% again this week so I think it is a little easy for him. If they repeat the questions next year then I expect year 8 will be too easy by then anyway.

Same for us user. DD is Y7 and was very tired after a full day and did it very quickly this evening before the cut off.

It's a shame - I'd be tempted to tweet and make these points but it sounds a bit smug

I think it’s worth letting them know. It’s a shame, as ds really relished the experience of not being able to do all the questions. He got 100% on the Y8 as well as Y7, which isn’t a stealth boast, just an indication to me that the level of questions is now middle set rather than top top set

I was hoping they will adjust the difficulty this week, but seems not.
But surely they must realise soon that so many children are getting high marks means level isn't right?