University of Southampton Maths Challenge 2014

The University of Southampton are pleased to announce Maths Challenge '14. Last year over 1000 students from schools around the South of England took part in the Maths Challenge and the Senior Maths Challenge. The Challenges are brought to you by Southampton University's Mathematics Outreach Team.

The University of Southampton Mathematics Challenge is aimed at students up to Year 8 and the Senior Mathematics Challenge is aimed at students up to Year 10. Entry is free.

The most successful students in the Challenge and Senior Challenge will be invited, with their parents and teachers, to attend an evening of mathematical recreation around 14th May at the University of Southampton, at which prizes and certificates will be awarded.

The Challenge and Senior Challenge consist of a selection of interesting mathematical questions for pupils to attempt at home. Copies of each paper can be downloaded from the links on the right hand side of this page.

The closing date for the competition is Monday 24th March 2014 . We look forward to receiving your entries!

If you have any queries please do get in touch with me, Dr. Nick Wright .

Instructions for Students:

Entries must be a student's own work, though of course a student may ask for help on how to start or for the meanings of unfamiliar words.
Entries without any working out at all or written on the Challenge / Senior Challenge sheet will not be marked.
It is possible to win a prize even if not all of the questions are completed, so hand in your entry even if it is not quite finished.
Entries should be on otherwise unmarked paper (although lines are allowed!), and competitors should write their name and school in neat writing on every page .
Competitors should return their entries to a designated person at your school or college. (If for some reason the student is not able to do this by the designated deadline, they can forward the entry directly to the address below, however, please make sure the student’s name is included on the marks list and note that the entry will be arriving separately)

Instructions for Schools:

Once the school has received its students’ entries, please fill the names of competitors on the mark sheets (one each for Challenge ‘14 and Senior Challenge ‘14), in alphabetical order by family name.

Forward the entries to us by Monday 24th March 2014, at

Maths Challenge ‘14 - Entries,
Dr. Nick Wright
Mathematical Sciences
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

marking the envelope(s) “Challenge ‘14 Entries” or “Senior Challenge ‘14 Entries” as appropriate.

History of the Competition

The Challenge and Senior Challenge competitions are set by the Department of Mathematics at the University of Liverpool through the Mathematics on Merseyside (MEM) outreach initiative. The so-called MEM Challenge and Senior Challenge competitions date back to 1978. Information about MEM activities can be found on http://www.maths.liv.ac.uk/~mem/ and a collection of previous tests and solutions can be found on http://www.maths.liv.ac.uk/~mem/challenge.html .

Mathematics Outreach of the University of Southampton

The University of Southampton's Mathematics Outreach programme is run by the Schools of Mathematics and Education along with the Southampton University Outreach Team. The outreach team is led by Professor Tim Sluckin, Dr. Nick Wright and Dr. Ben MacArthur from Mathematical Sciences and Ms Ruth Edwards from Education. The team, in collaboration with colleagues in Mathematics, Education and the University of Southampton Outreach Team run various events and workshops for students at all ability levels.

Useful Downloads

Need the software? PDF Reader

Printing the challenge

The Challenges are designed to be printed 2-sided on A4 paper and folded to form a booklet. You will need to select "landscape" in your print options for correct 2-sided printing.