WaiMaths is an inter-school mathematics competition hosted by Waikato University. A group of students from Raglan Area School (Theo, Vincent, Niko, Riley, Alaia, Kaia, Max, Zelma, Mars, Sol) from years 6 to 10 went to Waikato University straight after school. It was a lot of fun!
Although it was nerve wracking being there and competing against other schools, it was really fun, exciting, and very challenging. The other students said it was a bit stressful but they would do it again. Overall, I learnt a lot so it is a win for me.
There were teams of three from each school. We were in a tight situation where we had to figure out the questions on the spot and they were really difficult. The actual thing that you had to do was to answer twenty questions in 45 mins. There were twenty schools and they were all the best mathematicians in the Waikato. It was pretty crazy and we felt like we were slowly getting squashed by a giant and the only way to get out was to get the questions right.
The competition was hard and although some teams didn’t place, the thing that really matters was that we had fun and we tried our best and we learnt a lot. Our year 10 team with Sol and Mars came in first place in the small schools category and they both got a graphics calculator worth $195. It’s good to see what other schools are doing and what they are capable of and feel inspired by seeing what other schools can do. So, next year, I think we have a better chance. The WaiMaths Competition was great and all of us would do it again.
