Success at Maths Olympiad for Girls

Eight of our top Mathematicians took part in the Maths Olympiad for Girls recently. The Olympiad is aimed at girls and young women across the UK and consists of five challenging problems. This year, five of our pupils received a personalised letter from the competition hosts, United Kingdom Mathematics Trust, congratulating them on their impressive solutions to the problems.

Out of the 2,327 participants, Alison (LVI), Lynn (UV) and Lauren (UV) came within the top 25% of all results, and to Claudia (UV) whose answers would have placed her in the top 10% of entrants.

A special mention must go to Yihan (LVI) for achieving an impressive 41 points, and Wing Lam (UVI) for an extraordinary 47 points, placing them both as one of the top performers in the country.

Mr David Vaccaro, Director of Learning and Innovation, was particularly impressed with Wing Lam’s paper explaining, “Question 2 asked the candidates to find the area of the shaded square (below), and using a variety of methods it is possible to show that the area is 9/13 (or one thirteenth of the whole area)”. Wing Lam successfully answered the difficult question, with a solution “elegant beyond words!”, Mr Vaccaro described. Please see Wing Lam’s solution below (right).

Congratulations to all of the pupils who took part in the competition.