LEAVING CERTIFICATE students fresh from completing their “pres” gathered at University College Cork on Saturday for the fiercely competitive national final of Team Math, a mathematics competition for sixth-year students.
Midleton CBS from Co Cork saw off Marist College, Athlone, to claim the top prize of a trip to London and the Royal Meteorological Society in Reading. In total, 15 teams from around the country competed in the final.
The winning team comprised Alan Lane, Jamie O’Mahony, David McCarthy and Conor O’Donovan. Taught by Liam O’Brien, they correctly answered 18 of the 20 questions. The Marist team, taught by John Parker, of Edward Fagan, Robert Reid, Ruairí Dooley and Howard Costello scored 16 out of 20.
Dr Donal Hurley of UCC’s school of mathematical sciences said the problems were designed to be sufficiently difficult so that all the students would participate – no one or two students could solve all the problems within the time.
Dr Hurley said the top-performing student in Leaving Cert maths had been a member of the winning Team Math team on a number of occasions.
“Participants in the final represent the very best cohort of mathematics students nationally,” he said. “It was very competitive. The winning team got 18 out of 20 and . . . six teams tied for third place on 15 points.”
The Team Math competition has been running since 1991 at local level and there has been a national final since 2005. The Irish Mathematics Teachers’ Association (IMTA) prepares questions for the final and does the grading of student solutions.