UKMT Team Maths Challengers Win Regional Final

Doing maths on your own is fun… but doing maths in a team is just utterly brilliant!

This was our experience last Monday, when we represented Pate’s in the UKMT Team Maths Challenge, in the Regional Final. The competition lasted most of the school day and consisted of four rounds which were 45 minutes each, every round requiring problem-solving and teamwork to earn the all-important points.

Our team was comprised of two students from Year 8, Aaran and Ayush, and two from Year 9, Tom  and Tarun. We had to compete as two separate pairs in some rounds, and a group of four in others.

One round was the ‘group,’ with ten questions, some split into parts to solve as a team. Another was the “shuttle” where two pairs pass an answer sheet between each other where crucially, each question is reliant on the previous answer by your two teammates. The “crossnumber” was an interesting logical challenge, where a crossword-style grid was made with clues such as “a palindromic number,” “the smallest two-digit prime,” “square root of thirteen across” and a vast number of others.

But the round which was most memorable to us all, I’m sure, was the relay. The aim is to solve 30 questions in the allotted time, 15 per pair, but with a twist. A pair had to answer a question, then send one person sprinting to the opposite corner of the hall to have the question marked. If correct, they take the next question and ‘deliver’ it to their school’s other pair, again separated from the marker by a significant distance. If wrong, you have to return to your pair and start again, losing time.

As for our favourite question, I think some of the crossnumber clues would be strong candidates, especially what we called the loops. This was where, for example, the clue for 11 down would be 16*(5 down)+77, but the clue for 5 down would be the exact reverse – in this case ((11 down)-77)/16. This being the only evidence we had, we had to use existing digits and maths rules to find facts about the number, eventually narrowing it down to one opportunity.

And perhaps best of all, Pate’s managed to win our region, thanks to everybody’s crucial contributions! We look forward to the upcoming competition in London, but are also very pleased to have taken part in such a wonderful competition. Of course, we all owe so much of this to Miss Dodds for her organising and practice sessions, without which none of this would have been possible.

Tarun, Year 9.