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?

@gelatinous mostly. How good is gold though really? DS4 got gold in Y7 and has just got it again in Y8 but is in bottom set maths. He's been a bit distrait on the whole but at primary used to like maths. No olympiad but I don't quite know where gold is in the scheme of things.

yellowtip Gold is pretty good in my opinion. I think they give gold to the top ~7% of entrants and the challenge is aimed at the top third of the ability range, so you would be in the top 2%ish of the population.

I know your dc are at a v selective school, but at my local comps (which aren't that great to be fair) quite often no-one gets gold and even good schools only get 4 or 5 or less on a typical year. At any normal school to get a gold from the bottom set, or even outside of the top set would be unheard of (most schools wouldn't enter their bottom sets to start with).

Maths challenge success doesn't correlate completely with mathematical ability at other maths exams like GCSEs/A level though since it really only tests fairly limited branch of mathematics, but from what I've heard usually it works the other way - a child is a good mathematician generally but doesn't do well at maths challenges, rather than your ds who is doing very well at the challenges but not so well in exams (I presume) it may mean he is coasting a bit, but if he's not that interested in maths then so long as he gets a good GCSE grade perhaps it doesn't matter? Or maybe he needs an inspirational maths teacher to get him enthused. To get a gold once could be a statistical blip (it is multiple choice after all), but twice, I don't think so.

Ohyoubadkitten - did your dd ever find out her results?!

Interesting that the results are out - DD2 did it and hasn't got her results yet. Not expecting much as she didn't even know she was doing it until just before it started - they had to come and get her out of French class and she had no idea what it was she was being asked to do. DD1 did it twice and got bronze both times but at least she was warned in advance that it was happening.

No, I'd forgotten about this too - I wonder if dd has heard anything ? I certainly haven't! (Mind the school has had a not brilliant inspection in the meantime and this might have taken over their mids a bit )

I don't think the schools get the certificates until the final round results are known, so I reckon some don't bother telling the children the results until then (even though they do get the results sooner).

Roisin - no Olympiad but she did get best in school :) not bad for year 7. She wants to do better next year!

Well done to your dd

I wonder what parents can do to encourage the love of Maths after children got into Olympia Round?

The UKMT publishes books on their website that may interest a child who likes maths.