By Taari Chandaria, Year 12
Last weekend, nine of LGB’s finest mathematicians from years 12 and 13 had the opportunity to travel to Poland to participate in the 2023 ISMTF Senior Maths competition, held at the British School of Warsaw. Accompanied by Dr Grosset and Mr Bracquiné, the group set out to compete against 26 other international schools from around the world.
The group set out on Friday morning to catch their 2 hour flight to Warsaw. Students used the time in the plane for various different purposes. Some used it to practise for the competition, while others simply used it to relax through a book or Netflix.
Straight after landing, the group took a bus to get to the old town of Warsaw. Accompanied by a tour guide, they got to see the beauty of Warsaw, all while gaining an understanding of WWII’s devastating effect on the city, and how much of it had to be rebuilt. After a great tour in freezing cold weather and a late lunch, the group headed to the hotel, where they had time to have dinner and socialise with other schools in the common room before getting a good night’s sleep to be ready for the competition the next day.
Saturday is when the actual competition took place. In the morning, the individual competition was held. The format consisted of ten sets of five multiple choice questions, with ten minutes for each set. That equates to about two minutes per question, so evidently time management was a big component of the test. Most students managed to answer only two to three questions per set. 4 points were awarded for a right answer, 1 for no answer, and 0 for an incorrect answer, to discourage guessing. The questions were of varying difficulty, ranging from algebra to trigonometry to geometry. A personal favourite of mine was a question asking to evaluate the sum of cos2(1°)+cos2(2°)+cos2(3°)+…+cos2(89°)+cos2(90°) (the answer is 44.5). While the students solved the questions, all the teachers were busy marking all the previous sets, so a big thank you to them!
After the individual competition, the students had time for some lunch, before the team competition. In the team competition, teams of three were tasked with solving six sets of three questions, with 15 minutes for each set. These questions were generally much harder, stressing the importance of mathematical collaboration and discussion. Furthermore, these questions were not multiple choice, so double-checking with teammates to prevent careless errors was a key for success. A particularly difficult question which baffled many asked to find the shaded area of the figure below.
After a long day of intense mathematics, the group were rewarded with a chance to see Creed III in a nearby cinema, kindly organised by the British School of Warsaw for all participants. The movie was a fun way to relax after a tiring day. After the movie, the students got to lay back a little, playing card games together before going to bed.
The next day, the Sunday Chase took place, a team competition where students are placed randomly in groups with other students from different schools, and are tasked with running around the campus to find ten questions and solve them, aiming to be the first to hand in the answer sheet. The Sunday Chase was a fun experience, nicely contrasting the competitiveness of the day before and serving as another opportunity to meet other participants.
After the Sunday Chase was the award ceremony. Though LGB did not manage to win any silverware, our school still boasted some impressive results. In the individual competition, year 13 student Kodai Tsutsui achieved 11th place, just one away from winning a medal, and two other students also finished within the top 30 participants out of 248. There was perhaps some comfort in the fact that all of LGB’s three teams ranked higher than all other teams from Swiss international schools(La Chataigneraie, ISL and CDL) in the team competition, with our teams finishing 18th, 14th and 12th overall.
Year 12 participant George Popovici had this to say: “To my surprise, I had a lot of fun. Trying to figure out how to approach intellectually stimulating problems whilst surrounded by such extraordinary people was a very enjoyable experience. The discussions of answers between sets, the collaboration in the Sunday chase, finding out more about other competitors’ academic and personal interests… it was all an amazing experience.”
Though the trip was rather academic, it was also a nice opportunity for the year 12s and 13s to get to know each other and bond. Whether it be through Uno, Poker, or roaming the airport, the group got to know each other very well. “The shared thrill of solving mathematical problems and the bonds of friendship these nine enthusiastic students formed over the week-end in Warsaw will last long after the competition is over,” said Dr Grosset.
Overall, the trip was a great experience for both the students and the teachers, and the group look forward to potentially participating next year where it will be held in the Hague.
