Throughout this year, students from Margaret River Primary School’s Year Six classes have been taking part in the Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiads (APSMO) for 2018.
Each year thousands of schools from around Australia and New Zealand take part in the competition, which focuses on the students’ ability to solve mathematical problems in a creative manner - as opposed to simply reaching a solution using a prescribed method.
APSMO Coordinator Peter Delfs said the competition stimulated the students and created enthusiasm and enjoyment towards mathematics, as well as teaching major strategies that developed flexibility in problem solving techniques.
“Although students are competing against other members of their class and teams from other schools throughout Australia they are primarily competing against themselves,” Mr Delfs said.
The student who achieved the top score for the Margaret River team was Jase Bradshaw with a score of 84 per cent, which placed him in the top 10 per cent of all Australian competitors.
Next highest scorer was Oscar Dumbroski who was also in the top 10 per cent while Harry Otto, Will Dallimore and Ben Lochore were in the top 20 per cent of Australian competitors.
“Congratulations to all the Year Six students for competing with enthusiasm and a fantastic desire to improve their mathematical ability, as the written maths problems in the five tests are very challenging,” said Mr Delfs.
