2016 saw a leap in the number of boys qualifying for the follow-on rounds from the national Intermediate Maths Challenge.
A total of 280 QE boys from Years 9 to 11 took part in the UK Mathematics Trust’s Challenge. Forty-two per cent of them performed so strongly that they qualified to progress, with 24 reaching the Intermediate Olympiad – almost identical to last year’s figure of 25 – and no fewer than 94 qualifying for the Intermediate Kangaroo, a 77% increase on the 53 qualifiers in 2015.
“We are delighted with how well the boys have done and pleased with the increased proportion reaching the follow-on rounds,” said Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung. “Congratulations to all the qualifiers!”
In the initial Challenge round, the top 40% of pupils nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate in the ratio 1:2:3. However, at QE, 91% gained certificates, with 124 boys (92 in 2015) awarded gold, 88 (102) silver and 43 (61) bronze. Each participating school or college receives a Best in School certificate. This was awarded to Aneesh Chopada, of Year 11, who scored 127 out of 135. Best in Year 10 was Kiran Aberdeen (120) and Best in Year 9 was Saruthan Seelan (116).
![""]("/images/group(9).jpg")
In the Olympiad, which features around 500 of the best mathematicians from schools across the country, Aneesh, Kiran Aberdeen, of Year 10, and Edward Hu, of Year 9, were each awarded a distinction certificate, a medal and a book prize; the book prizes are given to just the top 50 pupils nationally. Niam Vaishnav, of Year 10, and Ben Domb, of Year 9, were awarded a distinction certificate and a medal – given to the top 100 – and 16 more were awarded merit certificates, which go to the top 25% nationally. The Olympiad features papers entitled Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin.
A further 5,500 pupils from across all three year groups are invited to sit either the grey or pink European Kangaroo papers. These are one-hour papers, with 25 multiple-choice questions, taken by pupils from over 30 countries worldwide. The round derives its name from the independent Kangourou sans Frontières association, the creation of which was originally inspired by the Australian Mathematics Trust.
Twenty QE boys were awarded merit certificates for their performance in the Kangaroo; the rest received participation certificates. The top scorers in each year group were Yuri Evokimov, of Year 11, with 95 points, Aadi Desai, of Year 10, with 106, and Saifullah Shah, of Year 9, with 118.