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Original poster

BEBRAS

115 replies

PenceyPrep · 27/11/2021 15:31

DD did the BEBRAS Junior competition earlier this month and has just logged in and found out that she got full marks - 200/200.

This is not a stealth boast - clearly she has done well, but I feel that I need to manage her expectations. She is beside herself with excitement and thinks that this means she is likely to be in the top 60 and will get invited to the finals in Oxford.

I'm probably a terrible parent for thinking this, but I just don't think she's that likely to be in the top 60 of the tens of thousands who sit this. She's a smart girl - particularly good at maths - but I can't help but think they must have made it easier this year and that thousands will have got full marks and they'll somehow pick a fraction of them, and I'll be mopping up the tears.

I've googled but can't find anything to indicate what sort of mark you need to get to the final or whether the marks were particularly high this year.

Can anyone cast any light?

OP posts:
Isthisjustnormal · 03/12/2021 18:46

Any info on the older age group (6th form) ito the cut offs for gold this year...?

piisnot3 · 04/12/2021 10:39

no of max scores and gold (10%) cutoffs by age groups hopefully in attached pic

BEBRAS
Original poster
PenceyPrep · 04/12/2021 11:18

@piisnot3

no of max scores and gold (10%) cutoffs by age groups hopefully in attached pic
Oh that's so helpful @piisnot3. Thank you for posting.
OP posts:
violinandpiano · 04/12/2021 12:44

@piisnot3 You give us very helpful information about Bebras. Thanks.
So many high scores here. Congratulations!

onemouseplace · 04/12/2021 13:48

@piisnot3 thanks so much - turns out DD got a Gold Award (Juniors) as well which I had no idea about (school just gave her her mark and whether they got a distinction or a merit).

Isthisjustnormal · 04/12/2021 21:51

Thanks so much, @piisnot3: that puts ds in gold; he's so chuffed!

CasparBloomberg · 09/12/2021 06:53

DD (year 8) got her certificate/results yesterday but the school made no mention about the follow on (Gold, 168, so based on this thread should be invited to OUCC).
Never done this before, so after finding this thread read the OUCC website and they’re supposed to be familiar with Blockly for the next stage which is at the start of February - do other children do this at school and get invited through school or do they do their preparation at home?

messhead53 · 09/12/2021 07:15

I don't think DS school do any prep for it. I know some schools do clubs etc.

CasparBloomberg · 09/12/2021 08:45

@messhead53

I don't think DS school do any prep for it. I know some schools do clubs etc.
There’s been no mention about anything else from the school, so I’ll get her to look at it over Christmas then. Thx
Tagliatelevision · 09/12/2021 16:15

Hi there - I just posted my own Bebras post in Secondary and someone kindly sent me this way.
My post was ...
DS through to round 2 in February in the junior category. He would like to 'prepare' but I know nothing about the challenge and his teacher has not responded to an email asking for advice.
Does anyone know what Bebras is and what the next stage involves. We checked on the website under the 'Next' tab and it says 'Unless you are in the Junior age category, you may find it useful to be familiar with a modern programming language for solving Section 3 problems'. but fails to say what the Junior age category should do
Any advice most welcome - I've not seen him fired up about something like this for a long time....

In DS's class anyone who got over 140 was told they would go through to another round in February but I can't get any further info about whether this is true or what's involved
Full marks is simply phenomenal - highest score in our school was 194

CasparBloomberg · 09/12/2021 18:06

@Tagliatelevision the way I read the next steps information was that all ages should be familiar with Blockly but the older categories should also know a programming language. They’ve done python at DS school already so that’s covered, but she’s never used Blockly. She looked this evening and said it looks a bit like Scratch which she was used to at Primary.
We also emailed the school but haven’t heard back yet.

Tagliatelevision · 09/12/2021 18:39

If I hear anything my end I'll share - fingers crossed our teacher replies (bit odd of her not to!)

violinandpiano · 10/12/2021 08:23

On OUCC website you can find tutorials and past challenges. Your children can learn by themselves. Most schools do not help students prepare next round.

Haskell · 10/12/2021 08:29

What violin said- there is information on the OUCC website about the next round. I think blockly is like Scratch, but I'm fairly sure they can use any language they know to solve the problems (though Haskell probably won't be one of them! Grin)

Snoopsnoggysnog · 10/12/2021 12:17

This is all a mystery to me. What mark did they have to get to achieve a Merit? That’s what my son told me he got. He’s 11.
His twin sister only got 80 and she was very disappointed. Can anyone help me understand what this is trying to test and how she might develop her skills in this area?

CasparBloomberg · 10/12/2021 13:59

DS described them as logic puzzles and she said it didn't feel like a test. But solving logic puzzles is the sort of thing she does for fun.
There are examples and sample questions here:
www.bebraschallenge.org/examples.php

CasparBloomberg · 10/12/2021 14:00

OMG she's a DD, not a DS, how can I not switch between my children on here. I would have failed the test!!

stuckasastuckthing · 10/12/2021 19:01

@Snoopsnoggysnog

This is all a mystery to me. What mark did they have to get to achieve a Merit? That’s what my son told me he got. He’s 11. His twin sister only got 80 and she was very disappointed. Can anyone help me understand what this is trying to test and how she might develop her skills in this area?
I think the distinction/ merit relates to their position within their school cohort. So top 25% get distinction and next 25% get merit. Obviously the actual score required for each will vary a lot between schools.

Separately, top 10% in the country for each age group get Gold award and an invite to another comp. The cut offs for this for each age group were posted by another poster.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 20/12/2021 12:38

Garrhhh. I could have predicted this. School have finally given DD her BEBRAS Gold certificate, but no mention of an invite to the follow-on OUCC competition (also no mention of the full marks, but we'll overlook that).

We've emailed school and the teacher says he knows nothing about OUCC. Hmm

DD is DESPERATE to do OUCC but it seems that the only way to do it is in supervised test conditions.

WIBU to ask another local school that is running it (DD's old friend from junior school is participating)?

OP posts:
PennineWayinSlingbacks · 18/01/2022 16:57

My DD, year 9, has come home today with a gold certificate and a score of 151 - she's thrilled. Something was vaguely said about another round but she's not sure...

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 11/02/2022 19:15

Has anyone done the OUCC follow-on to Bebras this week?

DD reckons it was very hard, but thinks she scored 40, which most years would get a merit and some a distinction. Almost certainly not enough to get through to the final though.

OP posts:
onemouseplace · 12/02/2022 12:59

@PenceyPrep DD's school only told them on Monday that they were sitting the follow up this week - DD looked at one of the previous challenges on the OUCC website and decided against it as there just wasn't time to prepare properly as she has no coding experience at all.

Really annoyed with the school actually as if they had told them about the follow up earlier, she would have had a stab at it. Some children at her school did have a go and said it was hard.

Original poster
PenceyPrep · 12/02/2022 14:45

Oh that's annoying @onemouseplace. DD's school weren't much better - they weren't going to do it at all until we pressed.

I think it's so important to capitalise on early interest in any kind of STEM in girls and so it feels like an opportunity missed.

OP posts:
stuckasastuckthing · 12/02/2022 19:05

I hadn't realised it was this week, so not sure if DS sat it. He hasn't had a certificate or anything as far as I know but said he got 164 (I think) in the first challenge so assume he would have qualified. To be honest, now he's at secondary they encourage them to be pretty independent so wouldn't necessarily expect to hear if they were doing it within the school day. Will ask him when he gets home later though!

stuckasastuckthing · 12/02/2022 23:24

Apparently they did it yesterday lunchtime - he said it was hard, but that he hadn't done very much practice so that might be why (plus it apparently took up the whole lunch hour so was also trying to eat sandwiches while doing it).
They let them know about it a couple of weeks ago but about 1/2 the people from his year who qualified didn't do it as they were either off school with covid or thought it looked tricky and didn't have time to practise. From discussing it with him tonight it sounds like it's quite different from the Bebras round and not really possible to do without a fair amount of coding knowledge.