ESM Secondary Maths Competition

Mr. Banzragch Tulga

IGCSE/IB Mathematics Teacher, The English School of Mongolia

Before the entire world went into disarray The English School of Mongolia (ESM) was well on its way planning a maths competition to be held here in Mongolia during March 2020 – overflowing with ideas of lively activities and trips to the countryside. We all know what happened next.

We decided to host a short online competition after waiting for things to get better for two years. The online competition was held from March 14 to 16; 168 students from 23 schools spent a combined 378 hours successfully taking part in this event. The first day was an individual challenge comprising of 15 questions to be solved in 45 minutes. The second and third day were team challenges also comprising of 15 questions each with a time limit of 45 minutes. Our prior questions from the original competition were not ideal for an online quiz format so we had to research and devise new problems. Our KS4 cohort students and Maths Department tested difficulties of a variety of questions and optimised for the suitable questions and format type. Virtual events can be difficult for everyone involved, especially for the host if it is their first time, but we can all agree that it is better than having no event.

Taking into account the nature of distance learning and technology being readily available, our focus for the questions was on logical comprehension and creative thinking. Calculators or software would not be helpful to find the solution of the questions. In addition, to add an element of teamwork, we designed the questions to be split between team members and work together in order to speed up the solving process. On the first day many teams tried to divide and allocate questions to each member but they soon realised that a combined effort is needed to solve most of the questions so they had to rethink their strategies for the next day. Overall, we learnt a lot from hosting this event and will use the experience to host even better ones next time!

We would like to thank the FOBISIA and all the teachers for organising their students to take part in this competition! We are very grateful for the tremendous amounts of patience and understanding shown by the teachers during any hiccups. It was a pleasure to host this online competition and we look forward to hosting a live event in the near future!