Intermediate Maths Challenge 2016
The Mathematics Department at St Augustine’s Priory always encourages our pupils to enter the Mathematics Challenges, organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust, and this year was no exception. Here, Mrs Bennet, Mathematics Department, tells us about the results of the Intermediate Maths Challenge, sat earlier this year.
‘The annual Intermediate Maths Challenge, organised by the UK Mathematics Trust, took place just before half term with approximately 70 of our pupils from Upper IV, Lower V and Upper V taking part. This hour long multiple choice paper had some truly baffling problems, made harder by the deduction of marks for incorrect answers. Here is a sample question:
“Every day, Aimee goes up an escalator on her journey to work. If she stands still, it takes her 60 seconds to travel from the bottom to the top. One day the escalator was broken so she had to walk up it. This took her 90 seconds.
How many seconds would it take her to travel up the escalator if she walked up at the same speed as before while it was working?
A 30 B 32 C 36 D 45 E 75”
(Answer at the bottom of this article)
Several of our best mathematicians were unable to take part on the day, which was unfortunate, but nevertheless our students achieved a Gold award, 8 Silvers and 8 Bronzes. The results were:
Gold, and Best in School to Melay Sebehatu Upper IV. This is a fantastic achievement for Melay and she now qualifies for the European round, called the Grey Kangaroo. This is organised by the Association Kangaroo Sans Frontieres (AKSF) – a name that recognises that the organisation developed in France but was inspired by the Australian Maths Trust. Melay will be taking her European challenge on 17th March
Silver awards go to: Aisha Toussaint Upper V, Indrani McClunie Lower V, Isabella Ju Lower V, Frankie Malinowski Upper IV, Mari Phillips Upper IV, Woon Sim Tan Upper IV, Nell Dobson Upper IV and Maria Merkulowa Upper IV.
Bronze awards go to: Abi Buchanan Upper V, Olivia Upcraft Upper V, Adriana Pastuszek Upper V, Emilija Krivosic Upper V, Agata Krynska Lower V, Rosa Maria Lyne Hall Lower V, Anika Gupta Lower V and Aine Jones Lower V.
(The answer to the problem is C, 36 seconds).’
