UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge 2017

OP

I've only done a couple though, I want to prepare a little bit nearer the time.

Reply 21

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

I've only done a couple though, I want to prepare a little bit nearer the time.

You have nothing to worry about, that is good for your age. However, the Olympiad, in my opinion, is much nicer than the challenge and is more recognised than the IMC. I would suggest trying a Cayley paper out and seeing how you like it

Reply 22

Original post by ben167

You have nothing to worry about, that is good for your age. However, the Olympiad, in my opinion, is much nicer than the challenge and is more recognised than the IMC. I would suggest trying a Cayley paper out and seeing how you like it

When doing the Olympiad, you also get your paper back, which I find really useful.

Reply 23

OP

Ok I'll check out a Cayley paper, but I think the questions are too above my level and in the actual exam I would probably just panic. I think it's good that you get Olympiad papers back because they're not multiple choice so you can see where you went wrong for next time.

Reply 24

OP

Also how did the SMC go?

Reply 25

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

Also how did the SMC go?

I answered all of them and got 3 wrong so I got 110 overall... Tbh much better than I was expecting so I'll start preparing for the BMO. If I did the SMC last year I probably would have only scraped a silver so, like I said, lots can happen in a very short period of time. Imo, olympiad papers are much better than the challenge papers

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 26

OP

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 well done!! Good luck for BMO 1, I'm sure you'll do great! Is it really soon?

Reply 27

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 well done!! Good luck for BMO 1, I'm sure you'll do great! Is it really soon?

Thank you!!! BMO1 is on the 2nd of December. I'm not sure how it's going to go down tbh but I'm hoping for a Bronze medal. Have you tried any Cayley papers yet?

Reply 28

OP

Yeah I tried last years but it didn't go too great. I ignored the time limit and attempted to answer all the questions. I got one right, two closeish, two the right starting point but not close to the final answer ( like, at all!) and one completely stumped me (the last one). This is probably pretty bad but I don't know the mark scheme or boundaries so I can't be certain... I honestly don't think I'm at the standard of Cayley ( I probably wouldn't be able to get there in the first place) but if I could get a silver or above I'd be happy and I'd probably be surprised if I got a kangaroo.

Reply 29

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

Yeah I tried last years but it didn't go too great. I ignored the time limit and attempted to answer all the questions. I got one right, two closeish, two the right starting point but not close to the final answer ( like, at all!) and one completely stumped me (the last one). This is probably pretty bad but I don't know the mark scheme or boundaries so I can't be certain... I honestly don't think I'm at the standard of Cayley ( I probably wouldn't be able to get there in the first place) but if I could get a silver or above I'd be happy and I'd probably be surprised if I got a kangaroo.

Sorry for the late reply! The olympiad really means a lot to many people and it looks good on a personal statement. Therefore I would suggest that you try your best to get through to it; it can be really fun!

Reply 30

OP

No worries, but I wouldn't call 11 hours late!! Of course I'll try my best to get through, it would be a great experience but Olympiad is top of the top and this is my first time sitting the challenge. I just don't know if I will be able to make it this year. Do you have a good strategy for answering questions, because I was going to stay safe and maybe do the first 17 or so but I don't want to do too little questions because my first year doing junior I was one mark off kangaroo as I didn't answer enough to qualify.

Reply 31

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

No worries, but I wouldn't call 11 hours late!! Of course I'll try my best to get through, it would be a great experience but Olympiad is top of the top and this is my first time sitting the challenge. I just don't know if I will be able to make it this year. Do you have a good strategy for answering questions, because I was going to stay safe and maybe do the first 17 or so but I don't want to do too little questions because my first year doing junior I was one mark off kangaroo as I didn't answer enough to qualify.

I would suggest trying to solve the first 15 or so pretty quickly as they can almost always be trivialised by logic and GCSE stuff. If you get stuck on any, try to move on so that you aren't wasting time. For me, I usually just solve them in order but the aforementioned tactic should work! If you got all 17 correct you would get 87 which is usually enough to qualify so try both tactics in past papers to see which one works best... Maybe try the artofproblemsolving website, there are normally good resources (however sometimes they are of IMO level so are really challenging)

Reply 32

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

No worries, but I wouldn't call 11 hours late!! Of course I'll try my best to get through, it would be a great experience but Olympiad is top of the top and this is my first time sitting the challenge. I just don't know if I will be able to make it this year. Do you have a good strategy for answering questions, because I was going to stay safe and maybe do the first 17 or so but I don't want to do too little questions because my first year doing junior I was one mark off kangaroo as I didn't answer enough to qualify.

Do as many as you can. Do the first 15 and if you get stuck move on and come back to it once you finished question 15. Try to finish the first 15 before you move on unless youre finding one exceptionally tricky. Then skim through 16-20 and see which question you would find the easiest and do that. Do this again and perhaps look at the last 5 questions after that. Again only do the ones you think you can do, don't just do them in order. You should never be guessing for the last 10. Only write down an answer if that's the answer you worked out, not because it's closest to what you got or it sounds write. For questions where it says What is the minimum or What is the maximum. Don't just assume the number you got is right, try and see if you can do it any smaller or larger.

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Reply 33

OP

Thanks both of you for the tips, I will try them out and see which one works more effectively for me. How do you prepare for challenges, do you just do lots of past papers?

Reply 34

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

Thanks both of you for the tips, I will try them out and see which one works more effectively for me. How do you prepare for challenges, do you just do lots of past papers?

TBH, I don't prepare for the Challenges, I focus on the olympiads. Our school always tells us like only a few days before when the date is of the challenge. But yeah, pretty much just do past papers.

Reply 35

Original post by TopazShyPhoenix

Thanks both of you for the tips, I will try them out and see which one works more effectively for me. How do you prepare for challenges, do you just do lots of past papers?

Do past papers and also try to join the mentoring scheme, the problems there are quite useful. Try to think as mathematically as you can always and that should make the challenges easier

Reply 36

sqrt(e/m)=c

12

Year 10 here. I can give advice regarding both the challenge and the Olympiads. I myself have competed in 4 challenges (2 JMC, 1 IMC, 1 SMC) and 2 Olympiads (1 JMO and Cayley). I've got merits both times round (though very close to distinction both times) and a bronze medal. The UKMT highest and lowest minimum IMC thresholds over the past 10 years have always been:
40<Bronze<50
50<Silver<63
62<Gold<78
60<GK<78
66<PK<88
81<C<92
89<H<99
90<M<104

I personally dislike the geometry questions (particularly Q 21-25), but it's really just practise and knowing a few theorems. Whoever on this chat said that they won't understand them, I can't remember who, they're really rather simple, and learnable. Look for isosceles triangles and (equal) radii, and try to find right-angled triangles for pythagoras. Circles are the hardest, but try to join centres of touching circles, so you can work out distances. Try to cut up many-sided regular shapes (e.g. hexagons and octagons) into smaller, easy-to-manipulate quadrilaterals and triangles, particularly with tesellations (e.g. last year's Q25). You should be able to convert shapes' lengths and areas into equations, which you can manipulate. Simultaneous equations are hard to come by, but very helpful. Guess for the first 15 if you don't know the answers, as there's no penalty. For 16-20, if you don't know two questions, but have 3 options or fewer left, take educated guesses, as, in most cases, it will pay off (if you don't want a big risk, of course, don't do this). I'll reply to any queries regarding IMC or IMOK (though I've never done the Kangeroos). If you do some JMO's, you should find much of the IMC a breeze. I recommend the following book, which includes around 150 of the UKMT IMOK Olympiad questions, and gives rather good explanations:
http://shop.ukmt.org.uk/ukmt-books/a-problem-solvers-handbook

Reply 37

Original post by sqrt(e/m)=c

Year 10 here. I can give advice regarding both the challenge and the Olympiads. I myself have competed in 4 challenges (2 JMC, 1 IMC, 1 SMC) and 2 Olympiads (1 JMO and Cayley). I've got merits both times round (though very close to distinction both times) and a bronze medal. The UKMT highest and lowest minimum IMC thresholds over the past 10 years have always been:
40<Bronze<50
50<Silver<63
62<Gold<78
60<GK<78
66<PK<88
81<C<92
89<H<99
90<M<104

I personally dislike the geometry questions (particularly Q 21-25), but it's really just practise and knowing a few theorems. Whoever on this chat said that they won't understand them, I can't remember who, they're really rather simple, and learnable. Look for isosceles triangles and (equal) radii, and try to find right-angled triangles for pythagoras. Circles are the hardest, but try to join centres of touching circles, so you can work out distances. Try to cut up many-sided regular shapes (e.g. hexagons and octagons) into smaller, easy-to-manipulate quadrilaterals and triangles, particularly with tesellations (e.g. last year's Q25). You should be able to convert shapes' lengths and areas into equations, which you can manipulate. Simultaneous equations are hard to come by, but very helpful. Guess for the first 15 if you don't know the answers, as there's no penalty. For 16-20, if you don't know two questions, but have 3 options or fewer left, take educated guesses, as, in most cases, it will pay off (if you don't want a big risk, of course, don't do this). I'll reply to any queries regarding IMC or IMOK (though I've never done the Kangeroos). If you do some JMO's, you should find much of the IMC a breeze. I recommend the following book, which includes around 150 of the UKMT IMOK Olympiad questions, and gives rather good explanations:
http://shop.ukmt.org.uk/ukmt-books/a-problem-solvers-handbook

The last year's tesselation question is the one of the only two questions that I didn't attempt / got wrong. My friend got it right just by counting every single small triangle and every single hexagon. Then drawing on the triangles on the hexagon. I sadly didn't have enough time and just guessed an answer wrongly (I know you shouldn't guess, but I was sure I would be above the threshold for the olympiad, so you know, might as well go for it for the glory)

Reply 38

sqrt(e/m)=c

12

Out of interest, has anyone been on the UKMT Summer schools, or know anything about them? Definitely my aim for this year. Generally getting 110-120 on the IMC and can answer 4-6 Hamilton problems. Does this look good enough?

Reply 39