Australian Mathematics Competition

Despite the challenges of remote learning and the demands of onscreen time, MLC School students once again showed their tenacity with 134 girls taking the opportunity to compete in Australia’s oldest Mathematics competition, the Australian Mathematics Competition.

I am pleased to announce that 91 of our students achieved a Credit, Distinction or High Distinction award. Notable mention goes to one of our Year 8 students, our Best in School and High Distinction Award recipient, placing her in the top 3% of the Junior Division.

Students in the following years received Distinction awards: 

Year 7 –  Six students
Year 8 – Seven students
Year 9 – Two Students
Year 10 – Two students
Year 11 – Two students

Four Year 9 students also braved the Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad, a four-hour examination attracting 1600 talented Mathematics students from Years 9 – 10 across Australia. Two MLC School girls received Credit Awards in this gruelling examination.

Opportunities such as the Australian Mathematics competition, the Mathematics Challenge and Enrichment programs give our students exposure to Mathematics outside the classroom and a taste of the work mathematicians in university and scientific organisations (such as NASA) do daily. We hope that in the future more of our students take up the challenge of these external competitions. This year a student from Year 8 was awarded a High Distinction in the Maths Challenge and another achieved a Certificate of Distinction.

To further encourage our talented students to pursue the beauty that a problem offers in its complexity and solution, we will be introducing a Mathematics Club in 2022 dedicated purely to solving the seemingly unsolvable and giving the girls the opportunity to immerse themselves in a problem for a sustained period of time. 

– Penny Pachos
Head of Department – Mathematics