Hans Woyda Round 3 vs Highgate

Having both won our other matches, Highgate were the only other school still in the running for topping our group and going through to the main knockout competition. A loss wouldn’t be the end of the story, as we would certainly come second and carry on to one of the plate competitions (which we won two years ago), but with the talent at our disposal it would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to go for the Hans Woyda cup again this year. Highgate had posted some good scores on the first two rounds, but I had faith in the St Paul’s team of Issam (4^th), Shyamak (6^th), Aman (L8^th) and Eason (U8^th).

We made good time and were welcomed by Stephen Kirkham, the Highgate coach who happens to be an OP and one of Andy Mayfield’s old tutees! Naturally I had already interrogated Andy to discover whether or not Stephen had any weaknesses that could be exploited to give us the edge, but sadly it turns out that he was a first rate student and a remarkably talented mathematician which was the exact opposite of what I had been hoping to hear. The match kicked off, as ever, with the starter questions, and the first two gave us an early lead, with Issam and Shyamak demonstrating a superior knowledge of 3 digit primes and interior angles respectively to give us a 4 point head start which we maintained for the rest of that section. This was followed by some excellent geometry on unusual nets by Aman and Eason to extend our lead to 8 points in time for the mental arithmetic, where some impressive probability calculations on the results of multiple dice throws (helped in no small part by some DnD familiarity on our side!) widened the gap to 10.

The team question concerned a function which gave the median of the divisors of its input; an unusual formulation which nevertheless was very successfully tackled by both sides. After a quick pit stop for some sandwiches and drinks we pressed on to the calculator section, which involved some fiddly conversions between metres, yards, pounds and dollars, and while Highgate were caught out by the confusing details given in the questions SPS managed a clean sweep of all four, bringing our total lead at this stage up to 20 points. The median-of-the-divisors function reared its head again for the algebra and calculus section, where a small slip allowed Highgate to regain some ground, but with a 17 point lead the match was already won before the race began. Highgate regained some face by tying SPS in the final section, but ultimately we sailed through to the main knockout competition with a final score of 58 – 41.

- Mr Cullen Hewitt

Below is a question which stumped both L8^th competitors; could you solve it in just a minute?

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 r eflected 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 altogether, 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 but very manageable after explanation. Among the problems were a complex simultaneou...

Hans Woyda Final vs King's College School Wimbledon

Yesterday, six months after kicking off the 2024-25 Hans Woyda season with our annual friendly against SPGS, we were at long last on our way to the final. There was a palpable tension around the school site and an unmistakable atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, making it abundantly clear that the entire school had their minds on that afternoon’s Mathematics fixture. As I set off for the match with Yidong (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Adavya (L8 th ), and Eason (U8 th ), accompanied by Dr Stoyanov for moral support and intimidation, pupils and staff had even gathered by the towpath to wish them well; unfortunately, they all seemed to be facing the wrong direction, but it was touching nevertheless. We made our way to the City of London School (which offered its services as neutral territory for the final), discussing tactics on the tube and working through a set of warm-up questions. We met the King’s College School Wimbledon side in the lobby as we arrived, and based on previou...

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