Harmony Gold Mathematics Olympiad Results (First Round)

The First Round of the National Harmony Gold Mathematics Olympiad was written on 18 March. To pass and gain entrance to the Second Round in May, candidates were required to score 50% or more.

In the Junior Section :

77 candidates wrote (44 from Grade 9 and 33 from Grade 8) and 40 were successful (25 from Grade 9 and 15 from Grade 8.)

Best performances :

Grade 8 :
75% Lauren Denny
70% Alex Nel
60% Lona Bam

Grade 9 :
85% Ye-Jun Hur
80% Hyun-Joo Park and Chante Leonard
75% Yohan Chun
70% Petrune Beattie, Cayla Scarborough and Sol-Jee Kim.

In the Senior Section:

142 candidates wrote ( 36 Grade 10, 53 Grade 11 and 53 Grade 12); 68 were successful (19 Grade 10, 25 Grade 11 and 24 Grade 12 )

Best Performances :

Grade 10 :
75% Samantha Marchant and Lauren Sanby
65% Xena Craig
60% Rose Jiang, Angeliki Carvounes, Sydney Davis and Nicola Steinhaus.

Grade 11 :
80% Laurie Scarborough
75% Catherine Luyt
70% Jenny De Villiers and Nicola Roux
65% Na Enn Jang

Grade 12 :
75% Julia Norrish
70% Tasneem Anthony
65% Alison Lloyd, Sarah Wighard, Kelsey Clark and Katherine Timoney

It is interesting to note that, as a result of previous participation and success rates, Rustenburg were granted 100 free entries and a reduced rate for the rest. This was a pleasant compliment but one can’t help wondering if the offer should rather have been made to a more needy school. We heard the news too late to react any differently but if it happens next year maybe we should take the opportunity to reach out to another school that otherwise finds it difficult to fund participation?

Following on this first round and some other trials we have now chosen our squad of 75 girls ( 25 individual and 25 pairs ) to participate in the the next major competition, namely the UCT Mathematics Competition on the evening of 22 April. This unique event takes place on the UCT Campus with upwards of 400 schools (5 to 6 thousand participants) all writing simultaneously in pairs or as individuals. It is the largest competition of its kind in the world where this happens.

Rustenburg has a proud record in this competition, both individual pupils and as a team. For instance Rudi Botha (matric 2008) gained a Gold Award (Top Ten in her Grade) every year from Grade 8 to grade 12) and the School Team has regularly featured in the top ten Schools.