Ученики школы St Joseph's из Ашбуртона впервые за 23 года выиграли математический конкурс в Тимару

PHOTO Young mathematicians from St Joseph’s School of Ashburton have won a close-fought battle at the Year 7 Aoraki Maths Competition in Timaru. Noah Shibu, Oakley Breading, Max Parkin and James Hawe scored an impressive 20 out of 20 correct answers in 30 minutes to take the win, a score that “very rarely happens”, organisers said. Teacher Kate Parkin who travelled with the team to the event at Timaru Boys High School, said she was very proud of how well they went. “This is the first time St Joseph’s has had their name on the trophy since the competition began 23 years ago, so that’s very special.” James said practice leading up to the competition was a big help as the questions looked familiar to them. “Some of the questions were slightly different, but still what we trained for.” However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the talented youngsters. Question 18 was one that caused them some concern and ate up valuable time. “We just could not work it out. It took us ages to answer it,” Oakley said. “It was intense watching other teams take their answers up.” Then an errant piece of paper threatened to derail them. “We dropped our answer and it took us three feeble attempts to pick it up,” Max said. Impressed with the free chocolates provided on the tables, Max said nerves weren’t an issue for him. “I have competed in swimming competitions in Christchurch which helped me,” he said. James also had his nerves under control. “I had adrenaline running through my veins,” he said. Kate Parkin said the competition not only demanded strong maths skills, but also a sound knowledge of maths vocabulary to interpret questions. “They communicated and worked incredibly well together under time pressure,” she said.