Mathematical prodigies from Bucklands Beach Intermediate School (BBI) have proven their abilities in a major competition.
The school’s year 7 and year 8 Mathex groups recently took part in the Australian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiad (APSMO).
BBI mathematics lead and maths extension teacher Mandy Attard says it’s for individual students and teams.
“This year four students in year 8 were awarded a medal for achieving a perfect score across all four competitions.
“Both the year 7 and year 8 Mathex groups were awarded the top non-Australian school in their division.
“This score is based on the total achieved by the top 10 students in the group.”
The school’s year 7 students were named top non-Australian school in the Junior division, while the year 8 students were crowned top non-Australian school in the Senior division.
It’s the third consecutive year BBI students have won both competition levels, Attard says.
“I prepare these students as part of their challenges which the whole Mathex group at BBI take part in during the year.
“It’s one of many competitions the students participate in to extend their skills and knowledge and challenge themselves.”
Attard says her young students’ success has proven they can solve their way out of almost any problem.
“Every year the schools’ gifted and talented mathematicians take part in the APSMO series of question sets, with more than 100,000 students across Australia and New Zealand taking part each year.
“The competition is one of those offered to talented students at BBI to provide opportunities for students who are extremely academic to achieve recognition of their abilities.”
Attard says the competition consists of four sets of questions held over term 2 and 3.
Students take part in the formal setting of the school hall with individual tables.
“Each student works on their own on the set of questions for 30 minutes and then the papers are collected and marked.
“The week following the competition, the questions are reviewed and discussed in class.
“Students can also find out their score for the set at this time if they’re unable to work out their score from the discussion.
“One year 7 group and three year 8 groups take part in this competition. The second year 8 group finished in the top 10 percent of teams and the third year 8 group finished in the top 30 percent of teams.”
To prepare for the competition, the students spend several weeks looking at different strategies which they can use to solve the types of applied word questions toward the end of term 1.
“Then the students complete questions sets from previous years, usually a few sets in the week before each round of the competition.
“All practice questions are reviewed and where relevant different possibilities for reaching a solution are shared and discussed.
“The students work really hard on preparing with many going home and practicing additional questions in their own time.”
The BBI year 7 team is comprised of Roger Zhao, Wilson Wei, Deven Wei, Savindu Kodippiliarachchi, Anderson Wang, Max Chen, Julian Xiao, Alyssa Guo, William Si, Ryan Xing, Emily Shen, Fangle Peng, Gloria Young, Raymond Lyn, and Kaesar Wu.
The year 8 team was made up of Hugo Tan, Ethan Liu, Devarsh Singla, Connor Hu-Wen, Edison Meng, Kenneth Liu, Raymont Qin, Chris Lin, Andy Tian, Rina Zhang, Franklyn Zhang, Stella Kim and Baxter Kennerley.
In addition, four year 8 students were awarded a medal to acknowledge their perfect score across all four question sets.
The medals were awarded to Connor Hu-Wen, Devarsh Singla, Ethan Liu and Hugo Tan.
