BEBRAS

[PenceyPrep]

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?

Have they released the table to show participants and results yet? That's the only way to really know. Dd said the 2 she missed were obvious when she looked again and the one that was worded oddly was actually easy once you realised what they were asking.

my child also scored full marks. Last year only 5 did that out of tens of thousands, so it will be interesting to see the stats for this year. Quite a coincidence for 2 students on a chat like this to get top marks if it was so rare last year!!

@holidaytimeatlast Yes, does seem a bit of a coincidence! I expect they've made it a bit more accessible this year. They've still done well though - you can't do any better than 100%

I'm a bit curious about what being freakishly good at Bebras actually means in real life... Are there any jobs that make use of these skills...?

Same for your child! 👏
I think they're good "super curricular" achievements if they want to apply for computer science or maths type degrees as it shows their ability in logical thinking. Looks like your child is also strong in maths if they're doing IMO...

Is yours a mathmo too @holidaytimeatlast ? I'm guessing there's significant overlap.

Yes, totally! V strong in maths

Has anyone seen any statistics from this year's challenge yet?

Yes, they're on the website now.

Thanks @PenceyPrep, I looked too early! Looks like it was a lot easier this year.

Yes, defo made it more accessible for the younger years - still pretty taxing for the older groups.

Do the Castors age group also go through to the next round or is it just Juniors and above?

DS (Y12) and his friend both got gold awards and are through to the next round. I’ve got no idea what his score was. He hadn’t even told me he’d taken it. 🙄 I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the friend got full marks, because he’s astonishingly bright, but I very much doubt DS did. His main claim to fame was scoring higher than the Y13s who took it! 😄 Oh and he too is very maths-y.

Still only 88 out of over 40,000 getting full marks - our kids have done amazingly well! 👏

They really have! Not that school will notice!

Did kids attempted bebras oucc coding stage in March 2026

how are kids finding it ? Is the challenge easier this time ?