Going for Gold: Lower School Pupils Impress in Junior Maths Challenge

At the end of April, pupils in Years Seven and Eight participated in the annual Junior Maths Challenge. They faced 25 tricky problems that tested their powers of reasoning, all without the aid of a calculator!

Our pupils performed exceptionally well, with an impressive 93 pupils being awarded certificates, including 19 who achieved Gold. The top results were achieved by Sean Yang in Year Seven and Dylan Cornacchia in Year Eight, who both achieved 112 out of 135. They have now qualified, along with 12 other high scorers from RGS, to participate in the Junior Kangaroo competition next Half term.

Here is a flavour of the problems from this year’s paper; how would you get on?

The world’s smallest vertebrate is much shorter than its name! Discovered in 2022, the frog paedophryne amauensis is only 7.7 mm long. Approximately how many of these frogs placed end to end, would be needed to make a line 1 metre long?

A) 100             B) 130              C) 260              D) 390             E) 520

 Forty furry ferrets weigh the same as fifty fit ferrets. Forty-five ferrets weigh the same as fifty-four friendly ferrets. How many friendly ferrets weigh the same as the fifty furry ferrets?

                                                                               A) 40                B) 55                 C) 60                  D) 75              E) 80

Mr Stephen Alexander, Second in Mathematics