Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi Mathematicians Strike Gold!

I have spoken to many students and adults who say they are “Mathematically challenged”, and I often wonder if they realise how fun that sounds! The essence of mathematics is in the challenge. Solving problems that are new and interesting is not only the fun of the subject, but in many ways it is the reason for the subject. At Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi, our students are challenged daily in their maths lessons, but also through the competitions that are available both locally and globally. 

Our Senior School students have been challenged mathematically this month with the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge and the High School Team Maths event in Suzhou. Despite the intense difficulty of many of the problems, and the fact that many of our students who participated were well below the average participant age, our students have once again performed at a World Class level. 

The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge is aimed at students up to Year 11 and challenges students to use their deeper understanding of Mathematical concepts to solve problems by applying their understanding of topics up to the level of IGCSE. Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi students from Year 8 to Year 11 entered the competition, and this year achieved the highest proportion of awards in our College’s history! Congratulations to all our participants, with medalists named below.

The High School Team Maths event was held at Dulwich International High School Suzhou for the tenth time, aimed at students up to the graduating Year 13. With schools flying from across the country and bringing a large number of older students, the competition was fierce as we entered four teams of mixed year groups from Year 9 to Year 13. With time-pressured rounds of questions ranging from codebreaking and cryptography to mathematical ideas beyond the syllabus of IBDP and A Levels, this competition was a real challenge for any aspiring Mathematician. Our young High School students showed great resilience and teamwork in every round and came away with several certificates for their group work with students from other schools and a 3rd place certificate for one of our teams in the Cryptography round!

In addition to the competition itself, there were also opportunities for our students to expand the horizons of their mathematical thinking beyond the classroom. We had a lecture from Ron Lancaster, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, who showed us the mathematical magic behind the magician’s perfect shuffle and the Rubik’s cube. On the second day, after some more problem solving, the teams followed a trail around the amusement park, HB World, to find some unusual Mathematical patterns and shapes to investigate, many of which remained talking points for the rest of the day and left us with research to do!

Huge congratulations to all our participants!

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge Results
————

10 Gold
15 Silver
9 Bronze

Bronze
——

Year 9

Louie Y
Tianle G

Year 10

Gianna Z
Zhenzhu E 
Simon L
William Y

Year 11

Richard K
Lily C
Angela S

Silver
——

Year 8

Chris W
Kevin Z

Year 9

Andrew H
Ellie L
Fred X

Year 10

Kevin S
Ilir L
Jerold P
Steven W

Year 11

Xin Y
Zachary Y
William J
Cindy W
Erin F
Tim C

Gold
——

Year 8

Aedan W (Best in Year) 
Christine H

Year 9

Eason W (Best in School) 
Emily L
Jayden C
Leona S
Justin X

Year 10

Nick C (Best in Year) 
Richard K

Year 11

Daniel Y (Best in School) 

High School Team Maths Participants:  

Year 9

Emily L
Jayden C  

Year 10

Richard K
Nick C
Steven W
Jerold P
Gianna Z
Zhenzhu E
Kevin S

Year 11

Tim C
Richard K
Zachary Y
Daniel Y
Xin Y

Year 13

Aidan M
Shen Y