UWCMT 2021
The first UWCMT took place on the 22nd of February in the exam hall. With 77 students from middle and high school signing up, it was not only an afternoon filled with enthusiasm, but was also a chance for students to sharpen their problem solving skills.
The first round kicked off to a great start. The Olympiad round was similar to most other math competition such as American Mathematical Competition (AMC) and United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Intermediate Mathematical Challenge (UKMT IMC) as it had 25 multiple choice questions and lasted for 90 minutes.
Although the structure of the Olympiad Round was similar to that of most math competitions, there was an emphasis on making some of the questions more engaging. This was done in several ways such as through having questions with unbelievable mathematical facts as well as having some interesting facts about UWC in order to make the questions more relatable. One of the participants described the difficulty of the High School Olympiad round as "being between UKMT IMC and AMC 10 level". Next year's tournament will likely be easier.
The second round, the theme round was different to the Olympiad round. This required the students to demonstrate that they understood the literature of the question, while applying known techniques, trying model problems or special cases, looking for counterexamples, and so forth. This was aimed for students to use their critical thinking to unpack each part of the question.
Overall, this year's tournament was a tremendous success. We hope all the participants had a blast, and will return for next year's tournament!
Check the Tournament Information section of the website to see some possible plans for the 2022 tournament. Check out our Instagram and Facebook page.