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Secondary education

Intermediate Maths Challenge

61 replies

TheSecondOfHerName · 04/02/2016 21:25

Anyone's DC take part in the open round this morning?

DS2 felt that it went well.

Last year he did quite well in the Junior one (gold certificate in the open round and a merit in the Olympiad) but he was in the oldest year group taking part. This year he is in the youngest year group for the Intermediate one, competing with children two years above.

OP posts:

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Ethelswith · 06/03/2016 23:25

I forgot about this until tonight, when DS casually dropped into conversation that he qualified for the kangaroo.

I'm feeling very proud, and just had to tell someone (so I'm telling you lot!)

TheSecondOfHerName · 22/02/2016 22:43

Well done to your DD JustRichmal
Hope she enjoys it.

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relaxitllbeok · 22/02/2016 21:10

Excellent, and yay for fun with maths!

JustRichmal · 22/02/2016 21:01

Dd got into Cayley, so really pleased. It is really variable; sometimes she does well, other times poorly. It is definitely not linear. But she likes doing the tests whatever she gets.

LongHardStare · 21/02/2016 00:33

Thanks relaxitllbeok - I guess I just thought I was reading it wrong for no good reason... Thank you!

relaxitllbeok · 20/02/2016 19:58

No, they mean someone who gets 95 out of 135 qualifies. Why don't you think that sounds right?

LongHardStare · 20/02/2016 18:55

My maths and problem solving is apparently too poor to work out the mark scheme...

The maximum mark is 135. The site says 95 is the 2016 qualifying score for the Maclaurin - I don't think that sounds right. Do they mean 95% of people who took part won't qualify, 5% will, and they're yet to say what score is required?

relaxitllbeok · 19/02/2016 17:21

Hope your DD has fun, whatever she ends up doing! (and whispers um thanks: y4 actually, though progress is not linear and there are plenty of things he can't do well!).

JustRichmal · 19/02/2016 16:28

Thank you for that. Dd passed for the grey two years ago, did not pass for a follow on last year, but is hoping to go have got enough for the pink this year, but may have to do the grey again. I'll wait and see how she did, then she can ask at school.
Was your son only in year 5 when he gat a distinction at the Cayley, or am I reading it wrongly? If he did, that is pretty good going. Well done to him.

relaxitllbeok · 19/02/2016 16:08

The thing that seems to happen if nobody asks for something different to happen is that they get put in the easiest follow-on that they're young enough to be eligible for, even if their IMC mark qualifies them for a harder one, so we're still expecting DS to do Cayley. (The Kangaroos and the Olympiads are separate: you'd only get put into a Kangaroo if you hadn't qualified for an Olympiad.) I think I remember reading on some school website about a child who had medalled at the Cayley one year being allowed to do Hamilton the next year rather than Cayley again, though, so it's not an iron-clad rule. I don't know whether all that is required is for the school to ask, or whether it's a special concession that only applies to children who've already medalled at the lower level, or what.

JustRichmal · 19/02/2016 15:53

relaxitllbeok, I wondered if you knowhow the follow on rounds work?

If they get a mark for the pink kangaroo in year 9, will they still do the grey? Do they have to be in the right year to do their year's Olympiad or could they do the one for the year above if they get a high enough score?

You mentioned your ds did the Cayley four years ago, so I thought you might know.

relaxitllbeok · 19/02/2016 13:58

one of those "higher"s should have been "lower", wish we could edit...

relaxitllbeok · 19/02/2016 13:57

Boundaries are out: very similar to last year, bronze slightly higher, gold slightly higher, olympiads practically identical. DS safely through, though yes, TMC comes first here. AutumnSky, hopefully your DS may get to do the senior team challenge at some point, which might reignite his enthusiasm? It sounds as though the IMC is too easy for him - if his school isn't already entering him for the SMC, I'd ask them to do so (somewhere in the SMC to BMO1 to BMO2 to further selection tests to International Mathematical Olympiad path, with any luck he'd find a level that's not boring!) UKMT have nothing against pupils in lower years than the target years doing their challenges, though not all schools seem to realise that's a possibility.

AtiaoftheJulii · 10/02/2016 09:44

No, I didn't mean at school, just for his own satisfaction. That's a shame though, that you think the excitement's run out. Does he have the book, "A Problem Solver's Handbook"? shop.ukmt.org.uk/ Discussions of how to approach intermediate olympiad problems, plus loads of questions arranged by topic and difficulty. Interesting and useful if you like that sort of thing

Autumnsky · 08/02/2016 11:54

To AtiaoftheJulii,

DS's school doesn't offer practice. When he took the first one in Y7, I did buy the past paper and asked him to do it. Then we don't do anything now, as he does it every year, I guess the excitment run out.

DS did team one in y8&9 as well, which he enjoyed, as they travel to London to do the last round.

MidLifeCrisis007 · 08/02/2016 06:25

Yes... he scraped the Kangaroo.... Wonder if DS (Yr 9) will trump him!

TheSecondOfHerName · 07/02/2016 22:07

Has he finished yet?

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MidLifeCrisis007 · 07/02/2016 18:35

For a bit of fun, I've got DH doing this... He's 5 minutes in and making the sort of grunts and groans I normally associate with a bout of Man Flu.......

His face was a picture when I told him he wasn't allowed a calculator....

AtiaoftheJulii · 06/02/2016 23:09

Lol Iamnot ! Nice for her to have a bit of free time then I think my son may spend his English lessons thinking about maths ... this would explain a few things ...

And no, none of my kids' schools do any practice for it.

TheSecondOfHerName · 06/02/2016 22:40

DS2's school don't practise for it. I have heard of other schools using the past papers as an enrichment activity.

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Iamnotminterested · 06/02/2016 22:33

DD offered that it definitely was not "Fun."

OhYouBadBadKitten · 06/02/2016 22:18

its usual not to practise in most schools, its supposed to be fun!

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Iamnotminterested · 06/02/2016 22:02

Is this the thing that happened last Thursday morning? She did mention it in passing...if so, DD1 did it on account of her (artificially) high maths set needing to balance her
(spot on) English set in year 10. I
asked her how it had gone. She answered that she spent 3 minutes
guessing the answers then the rest
of the time thinking about story openers :-)

errorofjudgement · 06/02/2016 21:50

DD (y10) did this. They do no practice at all at their school, so I'm amazed if they get beyond the 1st round!
Also it was in the same day as the 1st French GCSE speaking assessment, so most students were focussed in the French more than the maths

AtiaoftheJulii · 06/02/2016 00:35

I shouldn't post whilst trying to leave the house. Yes, the Kangaroo is huge, isn't it? A parallel competition is a more accurate way to describe it

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