Around the world in numbers – UWCMT Finals 2022

The two teams march onto the stage. The first three questions suddenly pop up on the screen and the teams start to frantically speed read and quickly set up a plan to divide and conquer the questions. Their pencils burn through paper fuelled by adrenaline and suddenly, a couple of shots of answers are fired by one of the teams. Some of the team members continue to solve the questions, while a few of them are too distracted anticipating the results. Is the answer correct?

The UWCMT Finals event ran for the first time earlier this year on 24 March. 80 students from Grades 9 to 12 with different mathematical skills signed up to watch the Finals. Two teams consisting of the top students in the Intermediate (Grade 9-10) and Senior (Grade 11–12) UWCMT Qualifier went face to face trying to solve the questions as quickly as possible.

The way the Finals work:

• The First 5 members from each team come up onto the stage.

• After that, three questions appear on the screen. The teams must work together to solve them before the other team does. Each member is assigned two lives.

• If a team answers a question correctly, a random number generator is used to determine the team member on the other team who loses a life. If the answer is incorrect, that team can not answer for 10 seconds.

• If a team member has no life remaining, that team member must be replaced with one who has not been on stage yet if there is one.

• After all three questions have been answered correctly or 3 minutes have passed, a new set of three questions appear.

• The last team standing wins. If both teams have members standing after the time is up the team with the most lives remaining wins.

 

It was amazing to see so many students from not only Singapore, but also other countries, take part in the tournament.

– Megan, Communications Department UWCMT

 

As for the qualifier, we went from having roughly 80 students from UWCSEA Dover in 2021 to 550 students from eight schools (UWCSEA Dover, UWCSEA East, TTS, OFS, Istanbul International School, AIS, AISM, DCIS) in three countries (Singapore, Malaysia, and Turkey). The length of the qualifiers was shortened to 1 hour and 15 minutes this year as we felt that the tournament was too long last year. We also focused on making easier questions in the Olympiad to make it suitable for more students.

 

I enjoyed the nature of UWCMT of the inclusion of mathematicians from different cultures and backgrounds, including minority groups.

Minjun, Grade 11 member, Marketing Team

 

It was amazing to see such an enthusiastic response for UWCMT and how our mission of using maths as a tool to solve real-world problems has inspired students from all around the world to engage with maths more.

Frank, Grade 10 member and Leader of Problem Writing Team

Additionally, we wanted to create a maths tournament that was innovative. We noticed that there were many competitions that were for the brightest students or to gain students’ interest in mathematics. After reflecting and thinking about our school's mission and values, we decided that focusing on referencing mathematicians from different backgrounds to make sure that our maths competition inspires a diverse body of students and giving students the chance to use mathematics to help solve real world problems.

We eventually came up with our mission statement: “To inspire students for change by creating a lively, purposeful and inclusive maths tournament with focus on resolving global issues.”

As well as our vision: "Students from different backgrounds and mathematical skills are able to appreciate the beauty, applicability and diversity of mathematics."

We executed our mission by creating the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Round. It contained two parts which each focused on solving mathematical questions around a certain SDG. We also used statistics from the charities SurfAid and Mercy to process real world data.

I look forward to furthering our progress, and hope this continues for many more years to come!

Aadi, Grade 11 member and Leader of Communications Team

Since the participation of UWC East was a huge success, for future plans, I am excited to see how we can get other UWCs involved in this tournament.

Arisa, Grade 11 member of Communications Team

We have many exciting plans for the future. We want to expand the Finals tournament to other schools and get the UWCs around the world to take part in the Qualifiers. We have gotten in touch with students at SAIS that are looking forward to hosting the Singapore Finals there next year. We also plan on running a virtual Finals tournament with UWCs with similar time zones like UWC ISAK (Japan), Changshu (China), Li Po Chun (Hong Kong), and Thailand.

It was a very rewarding experience because I worked with many different peers and teachers, learned many important life values, and was able to expand my passion for mathematics.

Soomin, Grade 10 member and Leader of Communications Team

Besides joining in on this exciting event that will continue to grow, UWCMT provides the opportunity to learn a large range of skills. Students who enjoy taking part in maths competitions could write questions for the UWCMT. However, there are also many other roles. The logistics team needs to get in touch with the other schools and make plans for various aspects of the tournament like marking. The marketing team needs to create posters and advertisement videos. As some of the current leaders will soon graduate, UWCMT will be soon run by a second generation of leaders with there likely being leadership opportunities in future years.

We'd like to specifically thank the Vice Principal Linsey Lawrence for the huge effort you put into helping out with the logistics of the Finals event. Despite being busy with many different tasks and projects, we really appreciate how you helped us book the Andrew Bennett Theatre and communicate with the logistics staff.

We also like to thank Vanshika who helped promote the Finals event as if it was her own as well as the rest of the StuCo team who also helped promote the event. We also like to thank Hanrui and Zile (Max) for helping give feedback to the questions.

Finally, we would also like to thank anyone who took part, watched or encouraged others to take part or watch the UWCMT.