UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

Year 8 pupils at Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School achieved 20 Gold, 21 Silver and 27 Bronze certificates in this year’s UKMT Junior Maths Challenge.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils in Year 8 or below from across the UK sat the Challenge, with roughly the top 7% receiving a Gold certificate, 13% Silver and 20% Bronze.

The percentages for BRGS were 22% Gold, 24% Silver and 30% Bronze.

Top scorers Luca and Joseph have been invited to sit a further round - the Junior Mathematical Olympiad - while four other pupils, Ryan, Jasmine, Haaris and Jason, qualified for the Junior Kangaroo, which is a multiple-choice Europe-wide challenge.

Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenge, said: “Year 8 pupils have once again excelled in the Maths Challenge.

“Nationally, certificates are awarded to the top 40% of the cohort, but our pupils almost doubled that proportion.

“The idea behind the Challenge is to test mathematical thinking and application rather than recalling and using facts and formulae. Pupils will still use the Maths they have learned in lessons, but the difficulty comes in knowing which techniques to apply to questions that are more abstract and open than those they are used to.

“This is something more prevalent in the current GCSE specification, which this year group will start in 2018.

“I would particularly like to pass on my congratulations to the six pupils who have qualified for the follow-on rounds, as they have demonstrated a very high level of mathematical aptitude and understanding. They now have to sit an even more challenging paper, but we are confident they will do their very best once again.”

Two sample questions from this year’s Junior Maths Challenge:

Last year, at the school where Gill teaches Mathematics, 315 out of the 600 pupils were girls. This year, the number of the pupils in the school has increased to 640. The proportion of girls is the same as it was last year. How many girls are there at the school this year?

A: 339                    B: 338                    C: 337                    D: 336                    E: 335

What is the remainder when the square of 49 is divided by the square root of 49?

A: 0                        B: 2                         C: 3                         D: 4                        E: 7