UKMT maths challenge - what is your criteria for entry?

[Velveteenchair]

I have two children who went to two different schools. Older daughter was entered into the junior and intermediate level. She won Bronze for both and went on to get an A at GCSE (about 6 years ago).

Her school entered most of the year group and, IIRC, took the test in the lesson in the classroom. It was never a big deal,it was pitched as something extra to do, if you gained a certificate then the school was delighted but if you didn’t, it was OK. The attitude was of positive casualness, if you get my drift.

My son is in Year 10 and is getting 8s for his maths grades. He has never been entered by the school who only enter their Creme de La Creme and seem to think the UKMT maths challenge is some sort of Olympic feat. I’ve looked into the cost per entry and it’s £1.30. Son is at an independent school so sticking an extra £1.50 (even £2 for “admin costs” isn’t going to make much difference. Son is getting demoralised as he (and many other perfectly capable children) are being excluded from entering the challenge.

I want to address this matter with the school but I would like to have a wider perspective on the UKMT maths challenge so that I don’t get the wrong end of the stick. Is it elitist? Is it difficult to organise during the school day? Is there a cap on the numbers allowed to enter per school? Is there anything I’m missing?

I feel sad because one child who is better at maths than the other is being denied a chance to enter something motivational purely because of the attitude of the school. Have I got this wrong?

Thanks in advance .

Bump?

I enter a sixth of the year group as that is easier to organise and workload is so high I can’t do the admin for more. A group of 20 can be overseen to take the test in one room just by me. That’s my criteria. It’s a comprehensive school and the challenge is not appropriate for a large number of the students.

I was a STEM admissions tutor at a very good Russell Group university for a number of years. One got to know the policies of certain feeder schools as pupils would discuss the UKMT on their personal statements. I think you are correct, OP, that schools vary widely in their policies as to whom they enter into the UKMT. Some were clearly entering a high proportion of our applicants, others hardly any.

I have great respect for teacher workloads and I don't know what administering the UKMT entails. In doing STEM outreach, however, I have often found that motivated pupils can outperform teacher expectations. @Fossie is probably correct that the UKMT is not appropriate for some good percentage of pupils but I would think they would not be the ones interested in sitting it. It is really sad when pupils are discouraged from extending themselves.

Thank you for replying. So, essentially, the number of entries is down to how many the in situ teachers are prepared to mark? That’s very helpful. Daughter’s school entered 45 per year group, son’s school enter 45 across 3 year groups.

I appreciate that this isn’t for everyone. I would not have been entered at the age of 15/16 as I struggled with maths at school.

We enter the top sets. We have 2 top sets per year group, so that's roughly 60 kids from each year who are entered. We take it quite seriously and they sit it in the gym (doubles as there exam hall).

I don't know how much additional workload there is in doing it, but the teachers definitely don't mark them! We send them off and they're marked by machine. I think we photocopy them first so there's a backup in case they don't arrive.

In our smallish independent school we entered the whole of Y7/8/9/10 for UKMT challenges this year. Some of the students in lower groups also really enjoy it , and the questions start off fairly easy - we just make it 100% clear you are not expected to finish it.

Thank you @dootball - that’s the way it was at my DD’s school which is what I think the challenges were designed for.

Teachers do not mark the paper so the demand is purely from an administrative point.

I have worked in 4 different selective schools. If money is no object, we would enter everyone in y8 or below in the Junior. Y9-11 and some top y8 in the Intermediate. Y12 and some y13 in the Senior and some top y9-11 as well. At the private schools, we did exactly that. In the state grammars, we often cut down one year group to save fee.

In normal comps that I know of, top set in y8 for the Junior, top set 9-10 and (some of) 11 for the Intermediate. Most of y12-13 for the Senior.

Organising 200+ students to sit the Intermediate used to take me about 4-8 hours of admin work depending on the timetable and about 2 hours for the site staff to set up tables/chairs. Nowadays, it is a lot quicker as it is online (and someone else does it for me).

We offer to both top two sets in each year group (potentially 120 students per challenge) but we let them opt in, they have to choose to do it and we get about 100 per challeng sign up.

My son was in Year7 last year and did UKMT IMC in Feb 2022 and UKMT JMC in March 2022. He got gold for both and proceeded to do Cayley olympiad, the second round for IMC and got merit award, and JMO the second round for JMC and got the distinction award with Bronze medal.

At our school, the math department kinda encouraged students to give it a try, but if you don't want to, that's okay. So when my DS was in year7, his math teacher sent out an email asking if any of Y7-Y8 students are interested to join, please try the past paper and convince him that you are good enough and then he will register you.

This year, my DS is in Y8 and got an opportunity to sit the UKMT SMC in early October, and he got gold award with 96 marks. The score boundaries are 76+ for gold and 100+ for BMO1. He only attempted 19 questions because he not that fast in math yet and he ended up got one question wrong. Even if he got more than 100+ and qualified to do BMO1, I don't think he's ready just yet. So for him, it was just another challenging paper that he got to do. The good thing is he didn't feel discouraged or anything like that, but he said he will give it another try next year.

I would say, in your case, have a talk with the school. As you need them to register for you, so ask them nicely. In our case, his math teacher last year kinda planned for him to give it a try, so we ended up trying without any expectation. The head of math at first mentioned to me that he doesn't recommend the kids to sit SMC paper too early. They rather wait till the kids are in Y9-Y10 to give it a try, but he agreed to make an exception in our case.

Also from what I heard, students in higher years seem to be less interested in UKMT as they're probably busy with some other activities and college application. I think it's a great opportunity for kids in Y6-Y11 that love math to do this kind of competition papers. It's something different from the core math they learn in the classroom. My son loves solving these kinds of math questions, as well as questions from Ritangle competition for Y12-13 students.

I think you can enter it as a parent? Have you looked?

Oh sorry it does have to be the school- but saying that why not approach the school and offer to pay for the minimum 10 entries? They may agree to match those 10 and get a class together?