The annual IMTA Maths Olympiad is a team maths competition for Leaving Certificate students that has been running since 1991. Each team is comprised of four students, and the competition consists of eight rounds, as well as a tie-breaker. The first six rounds consist of two questions per round, where students work in teams of two, and rounds 7 and 8 consist of four questions per round; each team member must work on an individual question. The questions are of Leaving Certificate standard maths, but generally require further problem solving, spatial awareness, and logical reasoning skills.
This year Gonzaga put forth two teams, one representing each Maths 1 class. Henry Li, Nicholas O’Neill, Conor Houlihan, and George Morrissey represented Mr Lynch’s class, and Rohan Deveraux, Jacques Murphy, Oisin Kirwan, and Liam O’Flanagan represented Mr Howlett’s class. There were 128 teams competing overall, and after eight gruelling rounds, as well as a tie-breaker, Mr Lynch’s team finished first place in Dublin, and third place in Ireland. Out of 20 questions, they scored 17 correctly, narrowly losing out to the top two schools, who scored 18. However, Gonzaga, scored eight out of the ten questions correctly in the tie-breaker, securing not only first place in Dublin, but also the best tie-breaker result in all teams that participated.
A special thanks to all those involved, especially Mr Lynch and Mr Howlett for coaching the teams in the days leading up to the competition.
Henry Li