By Miss Beukes (Maths Teacher)

On Tuesday 1st October 2024, the top 50 students from the Senior School and Sixth Form were selected to compete in this year's highly anticipated Senior Mathematical Challenge.

The competition featured a one-and-a-half-hour, 25-question multiple-choice exam, designed to ignite curiosity and problem-solving skills in mathematics. It challenged students to reason clearly, think precisely, and apply core mathematical techniques to tackle engaging and thought-provoking problems. Unlike other exams, this test rewarded well-reasoned solutions over guesses, and calculators were strictly prohibited!

Our students achieved impressive results, earning 17 Bronze Certificates, 4 Silver Certificates, and 3 Gold Certificates.

A special congratulations to our high scorers: Best in School: Manaal Alam (Upper Sixth), Best in the Lower Sixth: Mitali Misra, and Best in Year 11: Mahdiyah Meghji.

A remarkable achievement goes to Manaal Alam, Isabelle Cochrane, and Mitali Misra, who earned the privilege of advancing to the next round of the competition. This honour is extended only to the top 20% of participants nationwide. Here is an example of one of the problems to solve:

Five friends are dealt two cards each from a set of twelve cards. The cards are numbered 1 to 12 inclusive. In turn, the friends declare the sum of the values of their two cards. Paolo scores 4, Quinn scores 11, Romy scores 16, Stephen scores 19, and Thomas scores 20.

Which of the following statements is true?

A. Paolo has card 2 B. Quinn has card 3 C. Romy has card 5 D. Stephen has card 7 E. Thomas has card 11

Well done to all our competitors for their dedication and outstanding performance!