British Mathematical Olympiad Success 

The Senior Mathematical Challenge, a national competition open to school pupils of all ages, took place on 10 and 11 November 2021.

There were 337 entrants with pupils from the Fifth Form to the Upper Eighth taking part. The results were incredibly strong with a record 150 pupils gaining Golds, along with 143 Silvers and 40 Bronzes. In addition an very impressive 32 pupils scored well enough to qualify for the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad, a demanding 3.5 hour test consisting of six fiendishly complex maths problems each worth 10 marks.

On Wednesday 1 December, the intrepid individuals sat the paper with a fantastic 17 gaining Distinctions. Furthermore, James (Upper Eighth), Neil (Sixth Form) and Haolin (Sixth Form) all qualified for the second round of the BMO on 27 January putting them in the top 100 performers in the country. Haolin was particularly impressive, scoring 53/60, which placed him an amazing sixth in the country and he has also been invited to a UKMT training camp over the Christmas break. Roughly 20 pupils who perform exceptionally well in the BMO2 are invited to a further training camp at Trinity College, Cambridge, at Easter. A team of six is selected to represent the UK in the International Mathematical Olympiad. St Paul’s has a strong history of representation in the IMO, most recently from Joe Benton (OP and four-time IMO representative) and competing with Dominic Yeo (OP and IMO training coordinator).