The Senior Team Maths Challenge is a national competition for students from Year 11 to 13. The first stage of the competition was the regional heat, where we were against 39 other schools in North London. The challenge consists of three rounds: a group round, a cross-number and a relay. Our team’s favourite round was the cross-number, which is a crossword to be filled with numbers, where one pair has the across clues and the other has the down clues. We were the first team to finish our cross-number in the regional heat, completing it in half the time! After only losing 9 marks out of 168, we were through to the National Final, with one of the best scores in the country. The final consisted of an extra round: the poster round. This year, the poster round was based on the Mathematics of the Solar System. While researching this topic, we enriched our mathematical knowledge: learning about Kepler’s laws, ellipses and much more. The competition challenged our ability to work as a team and help each other solve problems under pressure. Unfortunately the competition was fierce this year, and we missed out on a podium position.
The Hans Woyda competition is an inter-school competition for schools all around London. Our team of four members from different year groups competed against teams from other schools. Unlike the Senior Team Maths Challenge, the Hans Woyda was more focussed on individual efforts, but still involved pair work and a team round. It tested our speed and accuracy, as we worked against the clock to solve challenging questions. After many sessions after school run by Mrs Jacques and Ms Copin, we were fully prepared for our matches. This year, we also had B teams at matches, who were victorious in many of their matches. We began the year with an excellent start: defeating Claremont and Merchant Taylors. Finishing second place in our group, we qualified for the Plate competition. We won both of the knock-out stages of the competition, beating two more schools, and made it to the semi-final where we faced QE Boys. At the end of an extremely intense match, the scores were tied, and so we had to face a tie-breaker round. The tie breaker also resulted in a draw! After another nail-biting tie breaker, we lost by a narrow margin. Readers might like to see if they can work out the tie-breaker question in 1 minute flat. Ready? Go! Compute cos50/(sin70sin20).
Overall, both competitions were really enjoyable experiences and we hope to come back fighting next year.
-Danishia Vijayakumar
The Hans Woyda competition is an inter-school competition for schools all around London. Our team of four members from different year groups competed against teams from other schools. Unlike the Senior Team Maths Challenge, the Hans Woyda was more focussed on individual efforts, but still involved pair work and a team round. It tested our speed and accuracy, as we worked against the clock to solve challenging questions. After many sessions after school run by Mrs Jacques and Ms Copin, we were fully prepared for our matches. This year, we also had B teams at matches, who were victorious in many of their matches. We began the year with an excellent start: defeating Claremont and Merchant Taylors. Finishing second place in our group, we qualified for the Plate competition. We won both of the knock-out stages of the competition, beating two more schools, and made it to the semi-final where we faced QE Boys. At the end of an extremely intense match, the scores were tied, and so we had to face a tie-breaker round. The tie breaker also resulted in a draw! After another nail-biting tie breaker, we lost by a narrow margin. Readers might like to see if they can work out the tie-breaker question in 1 minute flat. Ready? Go! Compute cos50/(sin70sin20).
Overall, both competitions were really enjoyable experiences and we hope to come back fighting next year.
-Danishia Vijayakumar
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