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The UKMT (United Kingdom Maths Trust) is an organisation that provides resources for students, and holds numerous maths competitions each year. One of these competitions is the JMC (Junior Mathematical Challenge), an event that takes place annually. Across the UK, over 300,000 Y7-8 students from numerous schools attempt the problems set by the UKMT. These problems typically value logical reasoning over calculations, and often have interesting solutions. In the JMC, there are 25 multiple choice problems, with the first 15 questions worth five marks and the final 10 questions worth six marks each.
After all the results have been submitted, there are some awards and follow up rounds. The top 50% of students receive Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates, with some of the highest scorers also qualifying for one of two follow up rounds. The first is the Junior Kangaroo, another one hour challenge which around 10,000 students make each year- the top 50% in this also receive a Certificate of Merit. Around 1,200 students qualify for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad (JMO), which unlike the Kangaroo has a separate scoring system to the JMC. There are two sections: Section A problems aren’t multiple choice, but do not require reasoning. Section B problems, however, require proof and reasoning, and scoring is done based on both the answer and the reasoning. The top 200 students in the Olympiad also receive a book prize!
Apart from the Junior challenges, there are also many other competitions held by the UKMT. The Intermediate Mathematical Challenge (which students from WA sat quite recently) is similar to the JMC, but has two follow up Kangaroo and three Olympiads depending on age group. The Senior Mathematical Challenge is for Years 12-13 and has one follow up Kangaroo. There are also two follow up Olympiads, one specifically for girls and another called the British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO) which has two rounds.
There are also multiple mentoring schemes to prepare for these competitions, or even international olympiads!
To prepare for the challenges, previous papers from many competitions are available on UKMT’s website. These include all competitions held by UKMT- everything from primary school team challenges to the BMO! There has also been a club running every Wednesday lunch to prepare for the JMC, where they have previous papers that you can try- this is a great way to get ready. On the day, students doing the challenge will gather in one room- typically the Green Room since there are so many people competing! Around a week later, we get our results and are notified if we received a certificate or qualified for a follow up round. If we did, these rounds are held similarly in other rooms.
Overall, the UKMT maths challenges are excellent competitions. They test our skills and have interesting problems to solve- I highly look forward to taking part again this year!
Akash Jain (Y8)
Maths subject prefect
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