Monday 29th April marked the second annual Queen’s Maths Challenge. The competition is for teams of four Year 8 students across a variety of challenges. This year, two teams from Queen’s College participated consisting of Max, Alex, Ptolemy and Kirk, and Emma, Charlotte, Finn and Felix, who were up against teams from Bishop Fox’s, Court Fields, Port Regis, and Tockington Manor, all of whom provided very stiff competition.
For the first round, the students had to work as a team to answer a set of 10 difficult questions. Round two saw the teams split into pairs to tackle the cross number where one pair was only given the across clues, and one pair was only given the down clues and they were not allowed to speak to each other. The final round was the relay round where they had to ‘pass the baton’ of questions, taking it in turns to attempt a question before running the next one over to their teammates. Compared to the other rounds, round one was quite sedate and all the students settled in well to the questions. By round two the competition really picked up, particularly as the students had the option to sacrifice marks in order to help advance in the task. This gave another element to the competition.
At the end of round two there were still 5 teams who all had the potential to win the day, but both teams from Port Regis were beginning to pull ahead, with their Team One only having dropped one mark across the first two rounds. Both Queen’s teams recognised the potential for a victory so put their absolute all into the final round, again sacrificing marks to gain time where they thought it might benefit them. It really was nail-biting down to the last minute, with teams desperate to pick up any final marks, there was a fantastic buzz throughout the OMR.
In the end both Port Regis teams continued their strengths from the first round and came in first and second place. The Queen’s teams came in a very respectable 4th and 6th given the competition on the day, with both teams showing excellent teamwork and Maths skills. A massive well done must go to all students from team Queen’s for thinking outside the box and completing difficult questions in close time pressure.
