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

Does anyone know when the kangaroo test takes place?

My DS has been told the Kangaroo is June 13th.

Does anyone know when the kangaroo test takes place?

The Kangaroo and the Olympiad take place at the same time. This year it is on the 13th June.

lilybookins

Schools shouldn't expect them to achieve any particular score in the test. It's a test taken purely for fun.

Those who got through to the JMO - well done! It's worth having a look at the sample solutions on the JMO page, as explaining their proofs is quite a different skill to the usual school questions.

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

There are medals available for the JMO too! Ds has a nice little collection

I'm very confused then , DS's teacher rang to say they were looking into why DS's results were missing , I said that if needed I could help by contacting the UKMT but she said it wasn't them? It is G something and called Junior Kangaroo? Anyone know what she may mean?

DD informed me this morning that she got a silver.

Just goes to show Positive Mental Attitude isn't all its cracked up to be.

@Pedanthere - I know it's just for fun - just wondered (as I've never come across it before) if each year they do it they may go 'up a band' as it were? I don't even know if her secondary school partakes in the challenge, am just interested from other parents whose kids have done it since Yr 6 (if that's the first year you do the junior one?) if that's how it sort of works.

Ds1 didn't do in in yr 6 as our primary don't.

He did it in yr 7 and enjoyed it but I have no recollection of how he did, although the top few yr 7's get recommended for the RI Masterclasses and he went to those the following autumn, so he must have done okay but I don't remember any medals and definitely not through to Kangaroo or Olympiad.

Yr 8 he got through to the Olympiad (can't remember that he got in the challange) and I've just had a look and he got a bronze medal, so definite progression for him.

Unfortunately for some reason the school didn't enter into the Intermediate this year so he hasn't done it (yr 9).

They don't necessarily go up a band each year (eg silver this year doesn't mean you should worry if she doesn't get gold next year - she might do better than that or worse). Some children are more consistent than others, but they're all very young, and of course it depends how they feel on the day and what questions come up! DS has done all three challenges (JMC, IMC, SMC) for the past several years. This year he got (boast alert) full marks in the JMC; in the IMC follow-on, a worse result than he got in that the very first time he did it!; and a spectacular success in the SMC follow-on. You have to look at the trend - it's not like GCSE or similar where the questions, and hence the results, are very predictable. I think that's good, though - it's helpful for them sometimes to do a thing where they don't do very well, and know that the sky doesn't fall, and they can still try to do well on the next thing. School standard maths exams can have such low ceilings, for very mathy children, that they encourage a harmful perfectionism where they can end up thinking 89% is a catastrophe.

I just found out that my son got a score of 69 so a silver.
He's in year 5 and sat it in the head teacher's office with a chap also there from the local comp invigilating. He did no preparation at all and didn't even know he was doing the test.

He's already said he will go for gold next year (I'm not telling him about the Olympiad!)

Dd has done quite a few of the test. She is now in year 9 so has not done this JMC. However, she started doing JMCs in year 5, IMCs in I think year 6 and SMCs (which is the only one with a lower age restriction) in year 7.
Her results vary widely. She has not had a slow progression of getting better each year.

More important than what result they get, is whether or not they find such questions fun. If they do, there are lots more on the UKMT website for them to try. The more they do, the better they will do in the test. However, not doing well in them does not mean they are no good at maths and will not do well in GCSE. Some are too young for tests or simply do not like doing these sort of questions

Ds didnt start doing them until year 7, think he got nothing first time. Then a bronze and then a gold in the senior one. He is the cautious type and wary about answering the ones hes not sure about

There are medals available for the JMO too! Ds has a nice little collection

I only have students doing well in the IMOK and BMO before so didn't know the JMO has medals. I coach a pupil for the JMO this year so hopefully will see what a gold medal looks like :)

DD in Y7 is pleased with her silver. She is in awe of a girl in her school in Y8 who got 100%. Apparently 24 out of the 250,000 who sat the test got 100%. Amazing.

JustRichmal, who told you the SMC had a lower age restriction? I forget which year DS first did it, but it was definitely before y7. (With you on results varying and fun being important!)

Pettswood - where did you get those stats from?? Just curious!

Hi Kitnkaboodle, on DD's school twitter feed which I haven't independently checked but have no reason to suspect the figures wrong mobile.twitter.com/NWSGMaths/status/864535784854089728

If your children are interested in doing similar papers have a look at CEMC from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

cemc.math.uwaterloo.ca/contests/contests.html

The actual competitions are open to schools anywhere in the world, I'm not sure about individuals though.

relaxitllbeok, I just checked UKMT website and have obviously remembered it wrongly. There does not seem to be a lower age limit for any of them. Thank you for that correction.

DS scored 76 getting a silver certificate

I had never heard of this.... until DS1 just showed me his certificates!

The boy holds his card way too close to his chest!
Well done, everybody who participated

Well done to your DS pacific!

DS is very 'mathy' and has been doing PMC and JMC since YR3, he's now YR6 and found the JMC much harder than practices and previous years, left 6 questions unanswered. Total surprise when he managed a gold / JMO. So those who said don't guess must be too right. It will be his first time in JMO, literally just for the experience, esp since we have no hopes invigilators will be able to read his (atrocious) handwriting for proofs. But he's done CECM Pascale (YR9 for Canada) and Gauss (YR8), loved them - says good practice but relaxing, after JMC. He says there is a bigger jump between the sections, in CEMC - so that last 5 questions are rather tricky. What can he do to prepare for JMO, besides suddenly learn to write legibly?

He needs to do the longer questions, ie part B from past papers of the JMO. They are available on the UKMT website I think. The following things would be useful:

• angle chasing technique
• modular arithmetic
• some simple counting techniques, colouring etc
• sum of consecutive numbers, properties of prime, triangular numbers, Fibonacci sequence, palindromic numbers
• divisibility tests

A little bit overkill but it covers most of the JMO long questions.