Pink Kangaroo!

UKMT Intermediate Pink Kangaroo Maths Challenge 2016

Eleven Year 11 pupils at Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School recently proved themselves to be among the best young mathematicians in the United Kingdom.

The pupils were invited to sit the Pink Kangaroo paper of the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge as a result of their excellent performance in the individual challenge in February.

The UKMT invite around 5,500 pupils from across the country to compete in this part of the Challenge, so the BRGS students really were in an exclusive group!

Worldwide, over six million pupils aged 5-18 from more than 50 countries take part in the Kangaroo at various levels.

The average score for the Pink Kangaroo from these millions of pupils was 72 out of 135 and eight BRGS students passed that figure.

Ben Holdsworth-Miller top-scored with 94/135 and he received a Merit Certificate, along with Josh Waddington, Mark Rutherford-Shaw, Amnah Ahmed and Dominik Skrucha.

Other above-average scorers, who received Qualification certificates, were Holly Tetlow, Louis Jefcoate and Melissa Clowes.

Jake Ruding, Molly Fielding and Reece Mayer also received Qualification certificates.

Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenge, said: “This is the first time we have had so many pupils qualify for the Pink Kangaroo, which is a fantastic achievement.

“The top 25% of participants receive a Merit certificate, yet almost half of our pupils reached that standard.

“I know all the pupils found the questions extremely challenging, but they did really well and should be proud of their results.

“Hopefully we will see some of them tackling the Senior Challenges next year when they are in the Sixth Form.”

A sample question from this year’s Pink Kangaroo is:

Angelo wrote down the word TEAM. He then swapped two adjacent letters around and wrote down the new order of the letters. He proceeded in this way until he obtained the word MATE. What is the least number of swaps that Angelo could have used?

A: 3                        B: 4                         C: 5                         D: 6                        E: 7