Doha College's Mathematical Achievements
In the academic year 2021-2022, Doha College has continued to achieve highly in mathematics. Please join us once again in thanking our teachers and in congratulating our mathematicians for their successes detailed in this blog.
According to the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) website, a minimum of 700,000 students took part in each of their Senior, Intermediate and Junior contests this year. The top 66% of participants were awarded Bronze, Silver, and Gold certificates in the ratio 3:2:1. We think that readers will enjoy working out each individual stratum.
Our KS5 students achieved an outstanding 11 Gold, 15 Silver and 17 Bronze certificates in the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge. Whilst the follow-on round, the Kangaroo, is only available to students based in the UK, we had 11 students reach this qualifying score. Best in Year awards were given to Moiz Azhar (Year 13) and Eleonora Carta (Year 12).
Our KS5 students also took part in the University of Waterloo (UoW) Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) Fermat contest. According to their website, over 265,000 students in over 80 countries take part in their contests per year (please note that individual contest numbers haven’t been provided). 7 of our students achieved the highest award, the Certificate of Distinction. This award is given to the top 25% of candidates globally and so we would like to congratulate them by naming them here: Eleonora Carta, Hasini Perera, Abhinav Gudavalli, Visvesh Narayan Kumar, Flurina Briner, Amr Abdeldayem, and Yousif Abdelghaffar.
KS5 students from Doha College also took part in the highly academic Integral Maths RITANGLE contest. The Doha College sub-teams were the only ones in the region to reach the final stage of the contest – an impressive achievement.
Our KS4 students achieved a remarkable 17 Gold, 21 Silver and 24 Bronze certificates in the UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. Whilst the follow-on round, the Kangaroo, is only available to students based in the UK, we had 23 students reach this qualifying score. Best in Year awards were given to Alexandrina Hudson (Y11), Nevio Carta (Y10) and Erin Kim (Y9).
Our medal count included Eleonora Carta (Y12), who achieved the highest score from our school in the Fermat contest, and Christopher Haddad (Year 7), who was awarded the title of "Elitist" in the International Mathematics Olympiad Challenge.
Erin Kim qualified for and has recently taken part in the Cayley Olympiad. Earlier this year we received the good news that Erin had achieved the highest prize in last year’s Junior Mathematical Olympiad and was sent a medal and the book prize by the institution. Well done Erin!
Following the Junior UKMT challenge in Year 8 last year, I was given the opportunity to participate in the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. The problems I discovered here were new and intriguing for me, and overall, it was a really great experience. Here I received a silver medal, along with the book prize. Furthermore, this year, I was again able to advance to the Cayley Olympiad where I am awaiting results.
Erin Kim, Year 9
Our KS4 students also took part in the University of Waterloo (UoW) Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) Cayley and Pascal contests. 2 of our students achieved the highest award, the Certificate of Distinction in the Cayley contest and 6 in the Pascal contest. Again, this award is given to the top 25% of candidates globally and so we would like to congratulate them by naming them here: Connor Maclennan (Cayley), Seher Pirzada (Cayley), Nevio Carta (Pascal), Annaika Manu (Pascal), Aarya Desai (Pascal), Abdullah Abdul Al (Pascal), Seri Barakat (Pascal), Nithukshan Thirugnanasambanthar (Pascal).
Connor Maclennan and Nevio Carta achieved the highest scores from our school in their respective contests, and as our overall scores were high enough, they have both been awarded a medal by the University.
Our KS3 students achieved an incredible 15 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 Bronze certificates in the UKMT Junior Mathematical Challenge. Again, whilst the follow-on round, the Kangaroo, is only available to students based in the UK, we had 9 students reach this qualifying score. Best in Year awards were given to Hashim Nasr (Y8) and Chloe Kim (Y7).
Out of the (minimum of 700,000) students that take part in the contest, the top 1200 are invited to the Junior British Mathematical Olympiad. We are incredibly pleased to share the news that Hashim Nasr, Jianne Lee and Zaahin Wagley all qualified for this event, which will take place in June.
We would like to give a special congratulations to Hashim Nasr as he achieved a maximum score in this contest – an astonishing achievement! Congratulations also to the students who participated in the International Maths Olympiad Challenge at the start of this year too!
Tharuka Herath has had his solution to a mathematics problem published on the nRich website (an enrichment project run by Cambridge University). nRich publishes “Live Problems” and invites students to submit solutions. They then select and publish the best solutions - and here is Tharuka's https://nrich.maths.org/891/solution. This is a fantastic achievement for one of our students in any scenario, but especially so when since Tharuka is a Year 9 student, and the problem he so elegantly solved was aimed at 14–16 year olds.
Tharuka uses his mathematical approach in other subjects, and uses it to excel in Design and Technology and Computer Science. His coding skills are such that he managed to create his own "Jumanji" video game - he truly is a digital innovator.
It has been another year where one has to reach for the thesaurus in order to look for synonymous ways in which to describe the incredible (superb, brilliant, fantastic) performance of our students. Whilst the provision for these opportunities can present a number of administrative and logistical challenges, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, the mathematics team have worked tirelessly to support, stretch and encourage students to strive for their very best. Whilst I will miss overseeing the programme, I am confident that our students will continue to surpass themselves well into the future.Mr Shabih Bashir, Mathematics Enrichment Coordinator
