Senior Maths Challenge

Our A Level Maths students and some of the best Mathematicians in Year Eleven have recently taken part in the Senior Maths Challenge. The Challenge is 90 minutes in total and features a number of multiple-choice questions which aim to encourage mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency using mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. The multiple-choice questions are designed to make students think whilst still being accessible, but challenge those with more experience. 

This year’s annual National Competition gave pupils the chance to put their problem-solving abilities to the test against a selection of esoteric puzzles. Our A Level Maths students and Year Eleven Mathematicians performed very strongly, with over 50 pupils achieving a certificate including five pupils gaining the top Gold Award: congratulations must go to Kitty Smith, Raiwin Lewis, Toby Alexander, Ben Sears and Nathan Lad. 

A flavour of the type of questions is given below – see how you would do! Answers will be given on the RGS Worcester Twitter account here. 

In addition, eight pupils also recently competed in the challenging Maths Olympiad for Girls. The Olympiad is a longer test consisting of five more open-ended problems and is not suitable for all pupils due to its challenging nature. However, more great results were achieved in this too, with Sydney Blanchenot, Grace Williams and Kitty Smith securing Merits, whilst Elizabeth Crookall gained a Distinction for her efforts. This was all the more impressive given that three of these pupils are still only in Year Eleven.

Sihan Fu in Year Nine was one of the top national performers in this year’s Junior Maths Olympiad, not only achieving a Distinction but also a Bronze medal and a book prize ‘An Introduction to Algebra’. 

Huge congratulations to all the pupils involved and the Maths department for such impressive achievements!