Advice for the future

Hey there,
I got my ukmt certificate and got silver. Here's where I come to the problem:I think I was close to getting gold by roughly 5 marks. I'm aware of a discretionary entrance thing but me being an introvert, idk if I should ask my teachers if I could do it. Not trying to be greedy but I got like 4* silver ukmt certificate now and I know for a fact that you need either gold or into one of the Olympiad to stand out in my application for universities(my dream unis being LSe, Oxford, imperial and etc). Plz suggest me as to what I should do. Sorry for the long message.

I put a translation competition I didn't even win (my entry was "commended" lol) on my PS and still got into Oxford, not everything has to be perfect to get into a good uni

Congrats. Is it okay if I ask what competition u mentioned?

Hey there,
I got my ukmt certificate and got silver. Here's where I come to the problem:I think I was close to getting gold by roughly 5 marks. I'm aware of a discretionary entrance thing but me being an introvert, idk if I should ask my teachers if I could do it. Not trying to be greedy but I got like 4* silver ukmt certificate now and I know for a fact that you need either gold or into one of the Olympiad to stand out in my application for universities(my dream unis being LSe, Oxford, imperial and etc). Plz suggest me as to what I should do. Sorry for the long message.

A gold does not automatically qualify you for the Olympiad. The Olympiad boundary is significantly higher. See https://mathsaurus.com/senior-maths-challenge-grade-boundaries/ for the difference in recent years (e.g. 2025 required a score of 72 marks for gold / Kangaroo but a score of 104 for Olympiad entry).
The Olympiad is noticeably harder and of a different style to the Maths Challenge. The discretionary entry is up to you but there is a reason why that higher boundary is there. If you think that you will do well on the Olympiad, go for it. It is worth trying some past papers to see how you do on them. You could also just do it for fun and if you don't want to mention your result on an application, you are not obliged to (unlike A-Levels or other public exams).
"I know for a fact that you need either gold or into one of the Olympiad to stand out in my application for universities" - no, you don't know this for a fact, because it is untrue. The UKMT Maths Challenge and the Olympiad are of a very different style than university maths, and success in one does not guarantee success in the other. Also, not every school enters students for UKMT so it is definitely not a requirement.