UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge

Fast becoming a key date in the Hutchie academic calendar, and with more pupils taking part each year, is the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge.

This year was no exception with twenty-nine enthusiastic pupils staying behind after school in early October to take part in the 90 minute challenge.

At the beginning of S5 and S6, senior pupils receive a special Senior Maths Challenge training pack that offers tutorials with top tips and coaching in tackling questions in the run up to the competition.

Our pupils thoroughly enjoy taking part and not only does it improve their mathematical skills, the competition encourages the development of higher-order problem-solving skills, useful in other academic subjects – as well as being excellent preparation for future university studies and the world of employment.

Taken from this year’s competition – Question 10, why not try work it out? (answer at the end of this article)

The prime factorization of 2024 is 2³ x 11 x 23.

How many two-digit numbers are factors of 2024?

A2     B4     C6     D7     E8

Pupils once again excelled in the competition achieving two Gold, six Silver, and eight Bronze awards. The competition is targeted at pupils in S5 and S6. However, we often offer this competition for enrichment to highly-talented younger pupils. This year Ayyan (S3) stole the show, with correctly answering 21 of the 25 questions, and receiving a Gold award along with the award for ‘Best in School’.

Dr Kilgour from the Mathematics Department commented,

“This is a first in my teaching career! I’ve never seen a pupil achieve this score at such an early age. Huge congratulations to Ayyan.”

“Ayyan has excelled in all the Mathematics competitions he has taken to date in the Secondary School and is taking part in the UK Mathematics Trust’s mentoring programme, supported by our Mathematics Department. He will be joined by Rio (S5) who also achieved a Gold (many congratulations), to take the Senior Kangaroo Olympiad later in November.”

Dr Kilgour continued,

“We are pleased to be able to offer enrichment support to pupils seeking to excel in Mathematics at Hutchesons’. We have a comprehensive mentoring programme which has allowed pupils to go on to study Mathematics at world-class universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.”

Huge congratulations to all the pupils who took part in this year’s Senior Mathematical Challenge, all of whom truly earned their certificates.

Solution to Q10:
As 2024 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 11 x 23, the two-digit numbers which are factors of 2024 are either suitable multiples of 11: 11, 11 x 2 = 22, 11 x 2 x 2 = 44, 11 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 88 or multiples of 23: 23, 23 x 2 = 46, 23 x 2 x 2 = 92. In total, this gives seven two-digit factors.