Year 12 pupil Hercules achieves Distinction in BMO2

Year 12 pupil Hercules achieves Distinction in BMO2

Congratulations to our year 12 pupil, Hercules, for his outstanding performance in the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 2 (BMO2), earning a well-deserved Distinction. The BMO2 is a challenging 3½ hour paper featuring 4 problems and is taken by students in their own schools. Hercules' achievement is truly impressive.

Reflecting on his experience, Hercules shared, "I am quite happy to have scored 15/40 in the prestigious British Maths Olympiad Round 2 (BMO2) 2024 exam, thus achieving a Distinction. Firstly, I would like to thank the Mathematics Department for their continued support, especially Dr Graham, Mr McMillan, and Mrs Allinson."

He elaborated on the difficulty of the exam, stating, "There are 4 rather difficult questions to be attempted in 3.5 hours; actually, the average mark obtained by the top young mathematicians in the country is around 1 out of 40 - being able to fully solve a question is considered rather difficult, and partial solutions usually gain relatively little credit (e.g., 1-2 marks out of 10)."

Hercules reflected on the non-standard nature of Olympiad-style problems, highlighting their intrigue. "Despite my main academic focus in pure mathematics, attempting Olympiad-style problems is rather intriguing as they are often non-standard in style, requiring one to try different approaches, be tenacious, and think in an organised, structured way."

Encouraging others interested in mathematics, he shared, "The satisfaction derived from finally solving a hard problem after hours of thinking is next to none. I would recommend those interested in Mathematics to attempt such questions as they are a good introduction to writing full proofs and mathematical reasoning in a more general setting than typical exam questions."

Hercules detailed his journey into Olympiad competitions, stating

I had always been interested in pure mathematics but not particularly in Olympiad competitions, though I was first introduced to Olympiad-style questions in year 11 and have been preparing by doing some BMO past paper questions since then.

He emphasized the importance of familiarity with tools and types of questions, adding, "For example, the theorems in Euclidean geometry or the ways to solve functional equations are outside of the school curriculum. In general, the level of mathematics required to understand the solutions is (relative to university-level maths) rather elementary, though coming up with the solutions usually requires some degree of mathematical ingenuity."

In closing, Hercules shared his perspective on Olympiads, stating, "Mathematical Olympiads are a good way of stretching and challenging oneself, though it is fundamentally different from higher-level pure mathematics." To fellow participants, he offered, "Performance in Olympiads does not necessarily determine your ability/potential as a mathematician; they are simply designed to stimulate mathematical thinking."

As Hercules looks forward to university studies in Mathematics in the future, he expressed his intent to focus on wider reading about pure maths while still enjoying the occasional Olympiad question.