Intermediate Maths Challenge

On Wednesday 29th January, 60 students from Year 10 and Year 11 took part in the Intermediate Maths challenge, a national, annually held Maths competition consisting of entirely multiple-choice questions designed to encourage critical thinking amongst high achievers. The rules were simple, the paper consisted of 25 questions starting from easier questions to insanely difficult questions towards the end and we were given 1 hour to complete this. Each incorrect answer would lose you 2 marks and this was very effective in deterring students from guessing answers. The first 15 questions were worth 5 marks and the last 10 worth 6 due to their increased difficulty. A good score in the challenge would get you through to the competitions subsequent rounds which become even more difficult.

I started the paper with high hopes speeding through the first 15 questions and all was going well until I reached the dreaded second section. This is where I needed to double the thinking power put into each one of my answers as to prevent mark deductions. Surprisingly, I found many of the questions easier than I had anticipated buy a few of them unfortunately really tested my mathematical ability. Regardless, I braved through the paper with 5 minutes left to spare where I then looked over the questions I had left out. I was still unable to do them so I had no choice but to leave them unanswered instead of guessing an answer as a mark deduction would’ve diminished my chances of getting to the next round.

Overall, the paper was tricky but fun at the same time as the satisfaction of answering a question correctly was unmatched. The thought-provoking questions were a pleasant change from the usual maths we do from the GCSE syllabus.

Adnan Wais