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Original poster

Junior Maths challenge

85 replies

Ohyoubadbadkitten · 25/04/2012 18:30

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
Ohyoubadbadkitten · 26/04/2012 17:07

Dd came home very happy. She said "it was fun!!" slightly alarmingly she said she could answer all of the questions - there were a couple of difficult ones that weren't very obvious at first but when she went back to them she could see what to do.

Of course her perception of how she did and the actual results could be very beasts! The most important thing was that it made for a very enjoyable afternoon for her.

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Original poster
Ohyoubadbadkitten · 26/04/2012 17:08

Very different beasts I meant!

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LynetteScavo · 26/04/2012 17:46

I asked DS the first few questions of a past paper this morning, with the answer sheet in my hand, and he rattled them off easily. I was impressed, as I couldn't answer them.

Then he comes home and tells me he forgot to go....

I think I shall personally escort him to his GCSE exams.

Original poster
Ohyoubadbadkitten · 26/04/2012 17:58

Oh lynette :( if it's any consolation, I reckon that's probably the hallmark of a true genius.

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BehindLockNumberNine · 26/04/2012 18:02

Ds did this this morning. I have no idea what it actually is??? I thought it was some sort of interform thing?
We are a family of maths-dunces so it surprises me that he was asked to do this tbh...

BackforGood · 26/04/2012 18:59

Lynette Grin That's so funny!
You'd have thought the teacher would have sent someone to fetch him if he's that much of a maths genius!

GrimmaTheNome · 26/04/2012 19:49

Fortunately for my DD they all do it, her form had it instead of normal maths so she couldn't forget. She says its the most fun thing they do in class all year. She didn't do it all - reckons she did ok on the first 15 and then did about 5 more being careful to make sure they were right.

Apparently if they finish their classwork early, sometimes 'if we're lucky' they get past papers Grin

Cloudminnow · 27/04/2012 09:11

What is the maths challenge? My Y8 DS mentioned that he is doing it today. He is in top set maths but really struggles with it

GrimmaTheNome · 27/04/2012 09:19

Here is link that explains it.

Its meant to be a fun thing for mathematically able pupils - not something to stress over, or prepare for, not something which in any way affects their school gradings. I guess it helps identify exceptional natural mathematicians.

My theory is that its an early screening exercise for GCHQ Grin

BackforGood · 27/04/2012 12:20

Re the scoring, my dd told me that the 1st 15 questions give you 5 marks if correct or -1 if incorrect or you don't answer, and the rest give you 6 if correct and -2 if they are wrong or there is no answer. It's just a optic reader type marker so no 'credit' for your workings or having the right idea.
She's very laid back about it all and wasn't bothered last year either, but it sounds like a marking scheme designed to send you into a depression [shcok]

BackforGood · 27/04/2012 12:25

Grimma - Just read your link - should have done that before posting Blush. I'd have loved doing stuff like that when I was at school. Brain's a bit fuzzled not though, I'm not sure how many of the second block I could do Grin

Love the idea of GCHQ screening - dd is quite good at languages too, and her dream at the moment is to abseil out of a helicoptor...... do you think she could put in an application for some kind of spying job ? Grin

elastamum · 27/04/2012 12:30

Both my DS1 yr8 and DS2 yr6 did it yesterday. They were sat at the breakfast table this morning discussion the paper. I had to admit they could both do more of it than I could Blush

titchy · 27/04/2012 12:32

Dd's Maths teacher stressed how important it was not toguess questins 16 onwards as lots of marks would be lost if wrong. Result being NONE of her class attempted anything beyong q15 Hmm

gelatinous · 27/04/2012 12:46

OK If your dc enjoy this sort of thing I can recommend trying the National Cipher Challenge next term. It's run by the university of Southampton and GCHQ are a sponsor, so it's free to enter. It starts quite easy and gets progressively harder through the rounds - great fun. There are also some decent prizes for the winners, and £25 spot prizes along the way. Year 8 is not too young to start, although they will be among the youngest entrants and may well get stumped in the later rounds - they may well get hooked and do it every year thereafter.

GrimmaTheNome · 27/04/2012 14:00

goodness, I didn't know there really was a GCHQ-sponsored challenge!

Original poster
Ohyoubadbadkitten · 27/04/2012 14:11

Wow! That cipher thing is so up dds street!! She had a big obsession with all things enigma for ages and writing her own codes and inventing her own language. Thank you!

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Garribaldi · 27/04/2012 16:51

The 2012 question paper is on their website. Anyone here brave enough to attempt it?

Original poster
Ohyoubadbadkitten · 27/04/2012 16:53

Oh. That is cruel. They could wait until the results are out. Dd has asked me about 300 times when they will be out.

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roisin · 27/04/2012 19:58

ds2 enjoyed it and was quite confident afterwards. He's just checked the answers on the website and is quite pleased with how he did.

RaspberryLemonPavlova · 29/04/2012 16:31

DS1 did this in Y7and Y8 - got Gold each year but not through to Olympiad. It was just up his street though - he really enjoyed doing it. He had a go at the cipher thing last year as school was very keen. It does get very difficult.

maxtrue · 29/04/2012 17:58

My dd also did this test last week - she was a little worried but seemed ok after

I did the past papers (you can get them on the net) as I am a maths nerd BUT found some of them really really hard!! and had to check answers first before explaining to dd Confused

trinity0097 · 30/04/2012 07:32

The UKMT people aim to get results to schools within 6 weeks, so there will be quite a wait to find out how they did (although the teacher can usually figure it out if they want as you have to photocopy the sheets before you send them off, in case they get lost in the post and then you an send the copies). For example I know that one of my Yr 6s who did the JMC scored 96, i.e. good enough for a Gold based on last year's boundaries.

stealthsquiggle · 30/04/2012 07:43

Is this a natural follow on to the primary maths challenge [nosy]? DS (Y5) did that and got a silver but I can't remember when it was - if it is at the same time then he has missed it this time as he is away.

ClaireAll · 30/04/2012 18:30

My DD did the intermediate challenge a few months ago.

We knew nothing about it until her maths teacher told us she won Gold. We are waiting results of the Kangaroo. They should be in school within the next couple of weeks.

gelatinous · 30/04/2012 21:13

stealth it's a similar thing to the Primary Maths Challenge so it's a logical progression in that sense, but I'm fairly sure PMC isn't administered by UKMT but by another body. I think more schools do the UKMT challenges relative to the Primary one, but I may be wrong there.

Unless things have changed in the last 5 or 6 years the results come out only about a fortnight before the Junior Olympiad which doesn't give much time to prepare, so anyone whose child thinks they have done especially well (over about 100) might want to start looking at some past questions for that now. It was a complete shock to ds the first time he did it - he'd never done anything remotely similar before.