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

DS has just got out and said the Junior Olympiad was hard but no harder than he had expected. He did all the A questions and two of the B questions. Did anyone else's DC have a go?

Also does anyone know how quickly they are usually marked? The website says it is speedy but that's quite vague...

I coach a pupil who did it today. She did all A and 4 in B but one of those wasn't completed. She over complicated Q2 and wrote a very elegant but unnecessary solution to Q6 so did not have time to attempt the last 2. First time she actually takes an Olympiad paper so it can only get better I hope.

Last time I had someone who did it, it took nearly a month for it to be returned.

DS did all A and 4 of B. These cost most of the time. As only 10 minutes left, he double checked A answers rather than carried on.

My ds did exactly the same as Bettertochange''s. He did it last year and said that this year''s was harder.

... oh and last year I thought the results came in about 3 weeks ...? They were good to have, as you actually he your hand-marked papers back with comments

The answers are already up on the website apparently

I just searched for maths challenge on MN out of curiosity. I didn't even know the name of it until today.

Dd had mentioned doing the initial test and then on Tuesday she said she'd done well so sat another harder test. This morning (well yesterday now) she gave me her certificates - best in year and gold award, I read the back and realised it's an actual thing, not just something her school are doing! She said on Tuesday she thinks she did okay in the second test so it will be interesting to see her results, especially as it's a different format, sounds like it could be a while yet though.

I'm really pleased with how well she's done but feel a bit bad I didn't even know what it was all about - her school have obviously not made a very big deal about it, I don't think she even knew about it until the day of the initial test.

Ds found old exams and practiced - thank you so much for your advice! Mainly doing it for the experience. He was learning to write out his 'proofs' for the first time - a new skill, esp given his handwriting. On the day, he says he answered the 10 Qs in A but very quickly, then focused on B. He enjoyed the 'extra' time (2hrs not 1hr) and managed 5 of 6, but only felt confident about 2 of them. He said it was harder than the practices, but not too bad, less questions about the areas he knows best. Saw the solutions for 2017 came out. Does anyone know HOW the JMO is marked? Is it 1 mark for the 10 questions in A, and 10 each possible for the 6 questions in B? DS won't mind his results, as long as he understands why, and we're not expecting an excellent outcome the first time he tries. DS' school takes forever to return his papers - sometimes waiting to year end, in the academic assembly or somesuch. He'd really rather just know, and focus forward, so if anyone knows the way scoring is done it would be deeply appreciated. It's DS first time.

The scoring for the jmo is very complicated. There are two kinds of scales - a kind of pass/merit/distinction scale AND gold/silver/bronze medals, which I think depends on how well they did on part b. You can see this stuff on the ukmt website, but I still don't completely get it! My ds got silver + distinction last year, but thinks this year's was harder and he doesn't think he's done so well.