Hans Woyda Round 1 vs NHEHS

We had a strong team, buoyed by the leadership of the captain of school no less, but I couldn’t help feel my confidence waver when a small slip in one of the first four questions gave NHEHS the lead at the beginning of the match. However, a mistake on their part in the next four questions allowed us to claw back some marks, leaving both teams neck and neck at the end of the starter section. This pattern repeated itself exactly in the geometry section; some inscribed squares got the better of us in the first two questions which gave NHEHS a temporary lead, but some painted cubes got the better of NHEHS in the next two which brought us back to level pegging.

At this stage I was concerned that we were in for another extremely close match, and I could already feel my heart rate starting to rise in anticipation of a nail-biting finish. Fortunately, my blood pressure was eased slightly by the mental arithmetic and probability section, where a stolen mark from the square root of a mixed fraction put us 3 points ahead. Up next was a team question on Lagrange’s four-square theorem, and at this point SPS really started to shine, getting an astonishing 10 points to NHEHS’ 4 and increasing our lead considerably. A flawless set of calculator questions put us even further ahead, and we had a comfortable lead going into the last two sections.

A gap of 13 points is impressive indeed, but history has taught me never to count my chickens before they’ve answered all of their maths questions correctly, and greater leads have certainly been eroded in the past. The algebra and calculus section concerned an interesting mean function, and some slightly mean questions meant that both teams ended up conceding points to each other. NHEHS could still catch up at the beginning of the race section, but a tough set of questions led to low scores on both sides and robbed them of the opportunity to close the gap. At the end of the match the SPS team had delivered a comprehensive victory, with a final score of 55 – 39.

- Mr Cullen-Hewitt

The Hans Woyda Trials

The Hans Woyda Maths competition is a London based interschool challenge. A big difference to other competitions is that it is a vertical year group team containing a Fourth, Sixth, Lower and Upper Eighth student (Years 9, 11, 12 & 13). The Hans Woyda’s main focus is speed, with seven sections of fast-paced questions. For instance, in the first section students only have 30 seconds to give their answers, and in the last section the first student to answer correctly gets all the points! The trials took place over multiple mornings and lunch breaks and students had to complete a time pressured test in order to claim a place in the St Paul’s squad. The top 3 students of each year group will each compete in one of the group matches of the Hans Woyda competition and will challenge other schools for the illustrious trophy. Here is a selection of some of the questions:

Problem Solving with Mykhailo

The maths society had the pleasure of welcoming one of our own, Mykhailo who presented a captivating talk on problem solving in mathematics. He began by telling us of his journey through mathematics, starting in Ukraine at the humble age of 7, where he agreed to compete in his first Olympiad in return for some Lego - a worthy reward. By the age of 11, however, he began to lose interest, until a remarkable geometry teacher reignited his passion. From that point on he was completely hooked on geometry, so much so that his Olympiad scores reflected his singular focus: 0/7, 0/7, 0/7, and finally, 7/7, as he excelled in geometry alone. He therefore decided that it would be best for his progress if he stopped doing geometry all together, focusing instead on the other 3 areas of math: Algebra, Arithmetic, and Number theory. He led us through a series of questions, seemingly impossible at the face of it, however, very manageable after explanation. Among the problems were a complex simult...

Preparation for the Senior Maths Challenge

With the Senior Maths Challenge (SMC) a week away, 8 th form students are preparing at the Senior Problem-Solving Club. The Senior Problem-Solving club is a lunch time activity where students work through a mix of interesting and stretching questions. The focus this week was on the hard final question on the paper with Dr Hemery and Mr Morris providing the last 20 years of question 25. Here is an example: As the final and typically the most demanding question of the SMC, it provided an excellent test for even some of SPS’s best problem solvers.

SPS Mathematics Blog