Last week our Year 7 and 8 students Oliver Barrett, Chris Cunningham, Declan Sander and James Underdown competed in the West Australian Mathematics Junior Olympiad that took place at Edith Cowan University in Bunbury. The team won the competition as the region’s Most Outstanding Year 8 team.

The event is sponsored by the South West Maths Teachers Association, as way to encourage students in the region to have a go at maths. ECU also sponsored the event, providing the venue for the team competition.

“Our team did not think we would even come close to winning so that made us pretty nervous. The questions were tricky, but overall it was a good competition,” said Year 7, Declan Sander.

Students compete individually, completing 16 questions online and then follow this up with the team competition.

“The most difficult part was the individual questions, as there was no one to ask if you weren’t sure on a question, and there was no way to split up the questions. Even Chris, who got the highest mark in the entire individual competition, only got 75% (which is impressive, when you realise the difficulty of the questions),” said Year 8, Oliver Barrett

Year 7, Declan placed first as the region’s Most Outstanding Year 7 student and Chris placed first as the region’s Most Outstanding Year 8 student.

“Before they read my name out for the individual winner they said my name accidentally for the runner-up, so I thought that I got 3rd! But then I was really excited and surprised when I won!”, said Declan

The achievement came with a total of $300 of prize vouchers between them. The students were ecstatic about the win.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say that winning was quite unexpected. When our team was called, we were all very surprised, as there were many teams and schools there. Declan and Chris had already won their awards for being the best in their respective years, but we had no idea that we had come even close to winning,” Oliver stated.