Senior Maths Challenge

Students achieved a wide range of certificates in this year’s UKMT Senior Maths Challenge (SMC).

Approximately 100,000 students from across the UK sat the Challenge, with roughly the top 10% receiving a Gold certificate, the next 20% Silver and the next 30% Bronze.

The percentages for BRGS were 19% Gold, 44% Silver and 30% Bronze.

After the initial Challenge, around 1,000 top scorers in the SMC are invited to take part in the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1 and up to 6,000 students are invited to take part in the Senior Kangaroo.

We are delighted that George (Year 11) qualified for the Olympiad, while James (Year 12) and Dan, Eric and Conner (Year 13) qualified for the Senior Kangaroo.

Particular congratulations go to George who managed to achieve the school’s highest-ever score in the Senior Challenge, even though he was the only Year 11 participant.

A maximum of 125 marks are available and George scored 107.

We are still awaiting the result of George’s Olympiad paper, but in the Senior Kangaroo, Dan scored a magnificent 60 marks, which earned him a Merit Certificate.

Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenge, said: “We are really proud of the results in this year’s Senior Challenge, which are the second-best our students have achieved since we started entering the competition in 2014.

“George, from Year 11, has done exceptionally well. He was far and away the top scorer in the Intermediate Challenge which he took in February and went on to achieve a Certificate of Distinction in the Hamilton Olympiad.

“He was happy to try the Senior Challenge this year and has shown us the high level of his mathematical ability by again achieving the top score, which is also the highest any student at the school has ever achieved.

“George was particularly pleased to outscore his older brother who took the Senior Challenge in 2019!

“Dan has achieved one of our best-ever scores in the Senior Kangaroo, which required students to produce a final numerical answer to a problem rather than being able to select from a multiple choice. This is his last Maths Challenge at BRGS and he has always performed exceptionally well in them.

“We are also very pleased with the achievements of all of the Year 12 and Year 13 Further Maths students who sat the Challenge, especially those who improved their score and certificate from last year.”

Two questions from this year’s Senior Maths Challenge are:

In 2021, a first-class postage stamp cost 85p and a second-class postage stamp cost 66p. In order to spend an exact number of pounds and to buy at least one of each type, what is the smallest number of total stamps that should be purchased?

A: 10               B: 8                 C: 7                 D: 5                 E: 2

What is the smallest prime which is the sum of five different primes?

A: 39               B: 41               C: 43               D: 47               E: 53

Pictured are the Year 12 & Year 13 Further Maths students with their certificates