Olympian performances by QE mathematicians

Two boys have won medals in the Junior Mathematical Olympiad – a competition for the finest young mathematicians in the country.

Year 8 pupils Nico Puthu and Max Shen both gained bronze medals and certificates of distinction after strong performances in the two-hour paper, while fellow Year 8 boy Kiran Aberdeen was also awarded a certificate of distinction.

They were among 16 boys from Year 7 and Year 8 who qualified for the UK Mathematics Trust’s élite Olympiad after scoring highly in the earlier Junior Maths Challenge round, which was entered by 255 boys at the School.

Bronze medals in the Olympiad go to entrants who answer the questions competently in section A of the paper and then go on to give three substantially correct solutions in section B. Certificates of distinction are awarded to the top 25% of scorers.

Wendy Fung, Assistant Head of Mathematics, said: “Only 1,200 students qualify nationally for the Olympiad from the 250,000 who sit the Junior Maths Challenge, so for QE to have so many boys among the 1,200 is a tremendous achievement. I offer my congratulations to all the participants, and I know that both Max and Nico were justifiably proud of themselves for winning medals.”