MATHS CHALLENGE

On 24^th February, a team of Royal School pupils went to Lancing College to compete against several of the South East's top under 15 mathematicians. Schools all over the country enter and after a tense day of solving puzzles, equations and questions, we were ranked tenth in the region. To start us off, our team was given a sheet of warm-up questions, which covered most of the things necessary for the real challenges. When we looked at the questions we could quickly tell that it was going to be a tough day and we'd really have to work hard. The first round was the group round, where our team was given a collection of puzzles and we worked together as a group to solve them. We didn't complete all of them, but most of the ones we attempted we got correct. The head-to-head round came next and the team split into two pairs. This round was really tricky because to answer your question, you needed the answer to the other half of your team’s question. If they got theirs wrong, then so would you and the chain of answers following would all be incorrect! We were given another chance at each of the incorrect answers, but the time slipped away and we didn't manage to complete one full chain of answers let alone beat our opposing teams. However, despite all this, we were leading in the top three at this point and would have been higher if another team hadn't been given bonus points. After lunch we endured 45 minutes of cross numbering (like a crossword but with numerical solutions), where the one pair of the team tried to complete all the down clues while the other pair worked out all of the across clues. No direct communication was allowed between the pairs. Our team did well in this round and both halves co-operated well, so questions that involved the other half's answers could be accessed and used appropriately. We completed over three-quarters of the cross number by the end of the time. It was a truly nail biting finale; the trainers were on and we meant business! Our team pairs were separated across the hall and the relay round began. Team part A started with the first question, and once they'd figured it out, ran to their assigned teacher with a correct answer, collected pair B’s question and gave it to them, team B gave their correct answer to the teacher and collected team As next question, etc, etc. We were allowed two attempts at each question, before we had to move on. The time flew by and both sides completed well over 10 questions each. The team did really well and we finished a very respectable 10th, with the help of our maths teachers. Thank you to Mrs Orchard for helping us throughout the day, and taking us to the event. Report by Isabella Woods (pictured Isabella, Bénédicte Sampson, Phoebe Kesterton and Alice Reynolds.