Croydon High students performed exceedingly well in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. We’ve had four students in Year 7 and 8 win the Gold Award, the highest achievement possible at this stage, and proceed over to the next round!

Over 300,000 students (Year 8 and below) in the UK took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. The students had 60 minutes to complete 25 multiple choice questions; to give you a flavour of some of the questions asked, why don’t you have a go at the following:

1. Amrita needs to select a new PIN. She decides it will be made up of four non-zero with the following properties:

1. 1. The first two digits and the last two digits each make up a two-digit number which is a multiple of 11.
   2. The sum of all the digits is a multiple of 11

How many different possibilities are there for Amrita’s PIN?

2. One afternoon, Brian the snail went for a slither at a constant speed. By 1:50pm, he had slithered 150 centimetres. By 2:10pm, he had slithered 210 centimetres. When did Brian start his slither?

1. Noon
2. 12:20pm
3. 12:30pm
4. 12:45pm
5. 1pm

The Gold Award Winners

The Gold Award winners (left to right) are:

• Arwa K- Year 8 (Best in school / Best in Year 8)
• Aliyannah H-J – Year 7
• Ana R – Year 7 (Best in Year 7)
• Emma S – Year 8

Aliyannah, Ana, and Emma have proceeded to the following ‘Kangaroo Challenge’ round. This will be similar layout to the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge in that it will be 25 multiple choice questions to complete in one hour.

Academic Scholar, Arwa K, achieved a remarkable score of 117/135 and has qualified for the Junior Maths Olympiad, an extremely prestigious competition where only the top 1200 students proceed to from the first round. The Olympiad follows a slightly different format. It will be a 2 hour paper but with no multiple choice questions and requiring full written answers for part of the paper.

We also managed to obtain 22 Bronze and 15 Silver Awards as well across Year 7 and 8.

After speaking to Arwa on her huge achievement, here’s what she had to say:

“Last year, I got through to the ‘Kangaroo Challenge’, so I’m happy to have got through to the Olympiad this year. But I’m happier knowing that I have improved in the last year to now get to this stage.”

When asked what career path she would like to take, she replied,

“I would love to be a Paediatrician! Nothing is better than making a child laugh. I love caring for other people and always wanted a younger sibling to take care of.”

Looking ahead to 14 June when the Olympiad takes place, Arwa shares that she will be preparing for the Olympiad by practising the Junior Maths Challenge questions and ensuring that she shows her methods and working out clearly, as the focus is more on quality of work rather than speed.

NEWSFLASH

Earlier this year, Arwa also took part in the GDST Creative Writing competition in which the theme was ‘Our Planet’. We have just heard the tremendously exciting news that Arwa has been announced as the winner of Year 7, 8 and 9 category – across the whole of the GDST – and that she has won a £100 book voucher. Croydon High is extremely proud of her – Well done Arwa, you are unstoppable! Read Arwa’s creative piece here.

Mr B Kazi
Teacher of Mathematics