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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

UKMT intermediate maths challenge?

91 replies

southernsoftie · 26/02/2014 15:21

Anyone else's child done this? And does anyone know how many children sit it each year? I have had a quick look on the website and it says roughly how many get through to each stage but not how many are entered to start with. DS is hoping to do maths and further maths at A level and I wondering if there is likely to be any correlation between the intermediate challenge and likely success at A level.

OP posts:

OhYouBadBadKitten · 28/02/2014 16:46

dd is into the olympiad :)

bruffin · 28/02/2014 17:22

brettgirl2 · 28/02/2014 17:44

I dunno, few years ago but I got bronze and am anything but a talented mathematician. B at gcse

OhYouBadBadKitten · 28/02/2014 18:04

she is very chuffed! and I'm ridiculously proud given its her work not mine

AntiJamDidi · 28/02/2014 18:09

Well done richmal's dd and oybbk's dd!

My dd's school didn't enter any year 9s this year so dd didn't get to do it.

We only got 2 into the kangaroo from my school this year.

richmal · 28/02/2014 18:26

Well done Kitten's dd. Best of luck to her in the Olympiad.

twentyten · 28/02/2014 18:33

Well done kitten's dd!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 28/02/2014 18:35

Good luck to your dd too richmal!

AtiaoftheJulii · 28/02/2014 21:48

Well done :)

It's definitely worth having a look at some past questions if she hasn't already, because they're quite different to most things she will have done. And look at the solutions too, lol! My son found the sample pupil answers for the JMO interesting - they don't seem to publish similar for the IMOK, but they might be useful as well anyway.

I can recommend the Problem Solver's Handbook - it's on their front page atm - www.ukmt.org.uk/

OhYouBadBadKitten · 28/02/2014 21:53

I've already bought her a copy of that fortunately she absolutely loves this stuff otherwise it could be considered cruelty! I don't know if her answers will be full enough for what's needed but we've talked about how getting this far is a big achievement and what she does now is a bonus. They don't get long to prepare though do they?

AtiaoftheJulii · 28/02/2014 22:51

Cruelty?? Nah, indulgent mother ;-)

(Er, my son has it on his bedside table atm )

OhYouBadBadKitten · 01/03/2014 07:24

I like that we are raising kids with their own style!

phonebox · 01/03/2014 22:32

Ha, I remember doing this in Y10 and getting a Bronze.

But I really struggled with some Maths concepts - I got a B for GCSE and was in the middle set all the way through Secondary school. Having just checked the past papers, I think I either was on fire on the day I did the test or got really lucky with guessing the multi-choice answers I probably wouldn't get 10 marks now.

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 01/03/2014 23:00

I did the Senior when I was in Y11 - the school I went to was entering the Sixth Form and said any Y11 who wanted to could too. I got a gold and into the Olympiad. Another lad from my year got a silver and another a bronze. I remember all the Lower sixth people hated us because thy got told off for letting 3 Y11 kids beat them.

Both me and the lad who got the silver got double A at A-level (long before A level A*) and into Cambriidge.

I never did it again. In L6 the school forgot to enter us and in U6 it was the week I had loads of Uni interviews and coursework and I panicked and refused to do it. Regretted afterwards but I was worried if I didn't get into the Olympiad again Cambridge would find out and not let me in! (I was a bit of a drama queen at 17.)

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 01/03/2014 23:04

Oooh - forgot to say - I found being cautious an advantage. My instinct with maths is to check, check and check again and only move on when I am sure it is perfect. This works well with something with negative marks if you get it wrong but not so well in other exams where I tend to not finish papers.

BadgerB · 02/03/2014 06:46

I'd never heard of this but a friend has recently told me her Y5 DS and another Y5 child got silver. Wasn't sure what it meant, but that's good then, isn't it?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 02/03/2014 08:57

There is a primary maths challenge - I wish more schools would do it. yes, it is good :)

richmal · 02/03/2014 12:06

If it was in November it was the primary maths challenge. If it was in February it was the Intermediate maths challenge. There is the Junior maths challenge coming up in May. Though it is aimed at years 7 and 8 there is nothing to stop those in younger years giving it a go. For children who really enjoy maths it proves a fun challenge.

BadgerB · 02/03/2014 12:55

Right, thanks. I expect it would have been the primary.

rinskuro5 · 04/05/2014 13:27

Does anyone know what marks you need to get to qualify for olympiad in the junior challenge 2014? I heard it was around 100 but last year it was 113, which is strangely high...? what about this year? DD thinks she got 116 because she saw the answers.

AtiaoftheJulii · 04/05/2014 14:08

Yes, I'd say usually around 105 and last year's was high.

Original poster

southernsoftie · 06/05/2014 10:47

DS did the intermediate olympiad and got a merit. I think he was hoping to do much better as he was confident he had answered 4 correctly but in the event he misunderstood one question completely and only got full marks on one of the others, with partial marks on the remaining questions. Having now seen the answers I certainly think the challenge and Olympiad are something you could practice at and improve on. DS loves maths but it has always come very easily to him and I am not sure to what extent it is a subject he would be willingt to work in order to improve, it has just been fun for him up to now.

OP posts:

pointythings · 06/05/2014 12:09

DD did it last week along with her Yr8 top set - no idea how they did, but she enjoyed it.

AtiaoftheJulii · 06/05/2014 12:48

southernsoftie according to the UKMT wiki article, merit means top 50%, so hope he's pleased :) Which paper was he doing?

pinkcheese · 06/05/2014 14:09

Thanks for posting this thread, I hadn't heard of these challenges before. DS yr7 came home saying he'd had to do a maths test with some others in yr7&8 last Thursday - I guess it must have been the JMC! (he is on g+t list for maths)

I have just had a go at this years paper myself, and marked it. Scored 84, which is on threshold for gold. Quite proud of my knackered ancient brain cells

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