UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

[shank2]

Did your y/y8 son /daughter sit the Maths challenge today and if they did -did they find it easy/hard

Thanks, chasingsquirrels, that's good to know about the different format.

We have a vague memory of older DC doing a maths challenge somewhere other than school and coming back with freebies of various sorts - is that the Olympiad stage or a further stage beyond that?

Ds didn't get any goodies from the Olympiad, and I'm pretty sure there isn't another stage - just the higher levels as you get older, so Junior, Intermediate, Senior and then the International competitions.

We definitely have a kitbag with the UKMT logo on floating about, but this was years and years ago - will ask older DC when they wake up in their present time zone!

Fortunately DS can think of nothing better to do with a weekend then to try some maths questions so we'll do what you did, chasingsquirrels, and download some papers.

If you qualify for the Olympiad you get a keyring with a maths puzzle on.

There's a team maths challenge that would be held somewhere else that you might be remembering?

Team maths challenge sounds likely, thanks.

Pupils (and teachers) get a goodies bag each if the school takes part in the team challenges. Over the year, I have built up a collection of pencil cases, pencils, rubbers, note pads, a water bottle from this year Senior team national final :)

For the individual challenge, you get a key ring and a book contains the 2nd round papers & solutions.

Get to the top of the Olympiad competitions, you get book prizes. Also in the British Olympiad, you get actual medals.

DS would explode with happiness at a key ring, let alone an actual medal.

The puzzles on these key rings are interesting and hard. I gave my lot theirs and they were spending a whole bus journey to figure it out like any maths geek would do. They decoded the message on the key ring this year but couldn't work out what it is about. I would be interested to know if anyone else knows.

Dd got silver. She was the one earlier in the thread who didn't read/listen to the instructions about not filling the questions in with guesses. (I've name changed since then.) No idea what she would have got if she had listened and whether she got lucky/unlucky. Pleased anyway with the silver.

What is this please? DD got through to the next round (yr 7). Do they need to do preparation then? She didn't get told her score.

Some info here. www.ukmt.org.uk/individual-competitions/junior-challenge/

Ds1 (Year 7) got his today. Gold which he was delighted with since he was the other person earlier in the thread who didn't listen and attempted every question...

ChestnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire

Tuesday 13th June

The threshold for the Kangaroo this year was 86, and the threshold for the Olympiad was 108.

Sorry, I read "what" as "when".

The Kangaroo is just a harder version of the JMC, but the Olympiad also tests your ability to communicate your knowledge in writing.

Does every child sit this paper or just a few? My son did do it. No results as far as I know.

In dd's comp the top sets sit it. In a selective school probably everyone does.

DakotaFanny

The school can enter as many or as few children as they want for the JMC, provided that they are in Year 8 or below. There are also Intermediate and Senior challenges for older years. Schools usually only enter children from top set, because they have to pay a fee to enter them.

The Kangaroo and Olympiad are for the children who did well in the JMC. They are invitation only. This year, you had to have got at least 86 marks in the JMC to get into the Kangaroo, and 108 marks to get into the Olympiad.

DS1 is at a selective school. They put in the top 3-4 from each Year 7 class and then more from Year 8.

Thanks. So pretty good to even get to take part in most schools then! Hooray.

I'm a teacher, but not Maths. In my school there were only around ten results given out in today's notices although I have no idea how many were entered. So sounds like any award is impressive.

Cheers all. Don't know if kangaroo or Olympiad, DD didn't get told or get her score.

Schools buy packs of papers for entry, they come in packs of 25.

DD got silver and was a bit disappointed as some got gold. However DS 1 never got better than silver and got into read maths at Cambridge so I don't think it is much of an indicator of anything!

DS's school announced results today but his was missing

Its good to know results are out so I can see if I hear anything from DD. I'm guessing I won't. She was well pissed off that she had to sit it as she missed PE. She also said it was very hard. So basically radiating the usual level of perceived hard-done-by'ness of a mardy 13 year old girl.

She is at a selective school with quite a strong reputation for Maths and the top 2 sets had to do it, so there wasn't even any feeling that it was an honour to have been asked. I suspect her feeling was "Its Not Fair" and she did the test in that spirit. Way to go DD

My daughter got silver - she's Yr 6 (at a state school) and has never done one of these tests before, they didn't do any prep, were only told the afternoon before they were sitting it (her and 6/7 other kids did it, not whole year)

My question is do kids do this test now up until Yr 8 (if the school that she goes to in Yr 7 even partakes in it)? Do the children expect to go up a level per year? Asking because I've just never even heard of it until a few weeks ago when she told me she'd done the test!
Thanks