Junior Maths challenge

[Ohyoubadbadkitten]

Just wondering if anyone else's dc is doing it tomorrow? Dd is looking forward to it. She's a bit nervous though as people expect her to do well, so I've told her its no one else's business how she does.
Any tips from anyone who has done it before? How long do the results take?

Yes, dd1 is doing it. She did it last year too. From memory I think it was a few weeks before she knew how she got on. She's very laid back about it all though - I just asked her for you and her responses mostly consisted of "dunno" and "can't remember" Sorry, that's probably not much help!

DS is but he doesn't seem particularly bothered by it, he did it last year and it took a few weeks for him to hear the results although the teachers may have known sooner.

DD2 is doing it too. She's really keen to do well - but quite laid back about it. She more interested in her new phone very frustrating for a maths geek like me.

Glad to know that those who did it last year didn't find it too stressful! I hope everyone doing it enjoys it.

read the instructions properly - after the first section, you get marks deducted for wrong answers, whereas generally in class up till now most schools will have been encouraging you to have a go. It took DD1 until her second time doing Intermediate to believe me about the deducting marks .

both mine do it - no great shakes
nice proof that the G&T list is used for something!

I shall remind dd of that Ishall. They've not been doing practises in school but dd has had a couple of papers to bring home to do under timed conditions. The first one she did guess a couple at the end. The second one she was more circumspect.

Have you seen how difficult it is? [maths dunce]

DS did it last year, and wrote the answers on the question paper (he is supposed to be bright ). So I hoping he will do better this year. He's not bothered, and never does any maths revision or homework. I'm guessing I will never hear what result he gets.

I don't think dd1 has done any practising!

Good luck to your dd. The maths challenges are great .

Make sure she uses a pencil and codes her answer on the answer grid (a computer marks the sheet).
If she doesn't know the answer to any of the first 15 questions, then she should guess. Do not guess any of the last 10 questions as incorrect answers to these lose marks (this is written on the front page of the question papeer, so she should read the instructions carefully). Last year's paper is here if she wants to see the instructions.

Results are now emailed to schools (presumably only if the teacher has given the UKMT their email address!) and should be posted to schools in about 2-3 weeks (although the UKMT say 6 weeks).

maths challenges are generally great fun, but it is a particular kind of logic required and sometimes very good mathematicians don't do as well as you might expect. So try not to let your dc get too upset if they don't either - they are meant to just be a set of thought provoking puzzles - most children do enjoy sitting them.

Thank you garibaldi :) I'll remind her of what you've said. Esp the bit about the pencil needing to be legible. I know in the grand scheme of life it doesn't matter, but Maths is a huge passion of hers.

"most children do enjoy sitting them"

DS is pleased he will be missing RE.

I expect she'll be fine badkitten, how old is she?

She is 12, year 7 :)

Well I've packed my boy off with 4 pencils and a rubber in a clear sandwich bag.

All the best to everyone doing the challenge today. :)

Have fun everyone :)

DS mentioned that he was doing the challenge this morning, first I heard about it!! He's 12 and in Yr 7.

He generally seems more bothered that he will be missing PE and IT, which are among his favourite subjects!!

As far as I am aware, it seems to have been a very low key affair, no test papers or anything - I also have no idea if he has thought to check that he has got the correct equipment.

Hope they enjoy it anyway!

It's quite normal for school's not to prepare children for it as it's a stand alone thing and the results aren't especially important for anything either. To be honest there's not much you can do to prepare - a past paper or two would help, but beyond that not sure there's anything you can do. The mathmos would enjoy practice papers but the rest of the class would probably be fed up with them after trying one paper - hence, for most just doing the real thing is the right approach.

The olympiad round should any dc qualify is another kettle of fish entirely. The questions on that are very hard for that age of child and need proofs written out which they won't be used to. Definitely look at some papers in advance if you get that far.

That's what they did in dds school. Dd has been getting them as part of her extension work but they've not been available generally for practising. None of them knew they were entering til Monday which is nice.

DD is doing it - she enjoyed it last year (7), presumably knows the rules this year. Never occurred to me to check she had good pencils.

From what she said last year, practice wouldn't really have been appropriate. Isn't it nice to have something that can't be crammed for - that requires them to think not regurgitate?

Will have a look at that last years paper sometime... or better, get DH to (I'm lazy)

You are right Grimma, it is so nice for them to have something good and challenging to do without associated pressure. Dd will be home in about an hour so hopefully she will come home happy ( she got to skip art which she hates)

Ds1 doing / has done it today. His only pressure is from ds2 who got silver in second round of primary maths challenge & has told him he needs to qualify for round 2, to "uphold family honour".

Expect he hasn't read paper & will guess some of the last questions.

Well done to your ds2 jicky, that's rather cool :)