The Botswana Senior Mathematics Contest Results are here!
As we reported earlier, the Mathematical Association of Botswana organized a math contest for secondary school students. The event was successful, more than 200 students competed with each other from different schools of Botswana.
The questions were prepared by Professor László Székelyhidi, Department of Mathematics, UB. He also worked out the solution sheet and the marking scheme.
The learners had to solve 20 questions within 60 minutes. They had to pick the only correct answer from 5 given possibilities. However, guessing was not encouraged at all, because the grading system was tricky. Correct answer was awarded 6 points, skipped question was worth 1,5 points and incorrect answer received zero point. Can you see where the trick is? It was much better to skip a question than guess and give a wrong answer!
The marking committee finished grading all papers and sent the final results to the Principal of each participating secondary school. The performance was very promising considering the fact that many students took part in such kind of event at the first time.
More than half of the students scored 50 % or above. There were some outstanding students whose names must be mentioned in particular. These learners are:
- Mohudeen Usmaan of Maruapula School – 95%
- Sasitharan Abhiram of Maruapula School – 95%
- Zhang Wen of Maruapula School – 95%
- Binu Joel of Maruapula School – 95%
- Park Garam of Waterford KaMhlaba – 91 %, the best female student
- Kang Pin Liu from Westwood International – the youngest student of age 13 years scored 50%
We congratulate all students who sacrificed their Saturday morning on the altar of mathematics. We hope to see the best ones in the team representing Botswana at the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (in Morocco) and the International Mathematical Olympiad (in Brazil) in June/July 2017.
Last, but not least special thanks to the math teachers who trained and encouraged their students, showed them the way leading to a higher level of mathematics.
If you are interested in the questions and their solutions, please visit the Problems page, and the Solutions page of our website.