College News

QE Students Strike Gold in Senior Maths Challenge

A group of talented mathematicians from QE have achieved stunning results in the annual UK Mathematics Trust Senior Maths Challenge. The prestigious challenge, a yearly highlight for QE’s A Level Maths department, tasks participants with solving 25 mathematical problems in 90 minutes, testing their reasoning, precision of thought and fluency. Over 50 QE students took part in the competition and achieved brilliant results, securing gold, silver and bronze certificates. Cara-Jane Neild, Sam Beukenholdt, Rushil Partha and Ben Fulton all finished with gold awards from the first year, whilst Liam O’Connor, Catherine Gu, Shrish Nair, Luke Owens and Sam Jackson were the second year’s gold certificate recipients. Cara-Jane Neild and Sam Jackson scored highest in their year groups respectively.

Nationally, around 10% of those who participate in the Senior Maths Challenge achieve gold status and they are then invited to the successive rounds where they face even tougher questions of mathematical skills and understanding. Ben Fulton, who studies A Level Maths, Chemistry and Philosophy, Religion and Ethics at QE, comments: ‘Completing the Maths Challenge was a very interesting experience and despite having now done it for seven years, I still find that it puts your mathematical skills to the test.’

Sam Jackson’s exceptionally high score in the Maths Challenge saw him quality for the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad, a competition which acts as an entry point for the training and selecting of individuals for international contests. Sam, who is enrolled on A Level Maths, Further Maths, Biology and Chemistry at QE and who has received an offer to read Maths at The University of Oxford, adds: ‘I always enjoy the challenge of tackling harder mathematical questions’. The other students who achieved gold certificates also enjoyed additional success, qualifying for the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo Competition in which five secured a certificate of merit, placing them in the top 25% of everyone who took part.

Helen Carvill, Course Leader for A Level Maths at QE, concludes: ‘We are incredibly impressed by the large number of gifted mathematicians at the College and we are confident that many of them will go on to use their mathematical and problem-solving skills at a higher level and in a wide of range of high-flying careers’.

To learn more about studying A Level Maths at QE, please contact Laurence Job, Deputy Principal, at ljob@qeliz.ac.uk.