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Sunderland students ace Australian Maths Competition

ACG Sunderland's Year 9 and 10 cohorts enjoyed outstanding results in the recent Australian Mathematics Competition. As one of the world's largest maths contests, it challenges New Zealand and Australian students with unique and engaging problems in a real-life context.
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ACG Sunderland Year 9 mathematics whiz, Yisheng (Ethan) Feng

ACG Sunderland's budding mathematicians were among the best-performing students at this year's Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC).

Their exceptional results saw a third of Sunderland's Year 9 participants achieve distinction (awarded to students between the 80th and 97th percentile) and credit (a broad category covering the 45th to 80th percentile) grades.

Plus, one particular mathematics whiz, Yisheng (Ethan) Feng, received the top result across Australia and New Zealand after being ranked in the 100th percentile.

ACG Sunderland head of mathematics Michelle Ngoh couldn't be prouder.

"Ethan's result is one of the best results ACG Sunderland has ever achieved in this competition, and it clearly reflects his talent for mathematics and all the hard work he puts in," says Michelle, adding that in 2019 ACG Sunderland's Liam Hall achieved high distinction with a 99th percentile rank.

"This is the third year we have entered AMC. And in 2021, more of our students than ever (46 from across Years 7 to 10) registered for the competition. I am extremely proud of their achievements which have shown that over the years, students are showing a greater interest in mathematics and improving their problem-solving skills." 

AMC is an engaging 30-problem competition that aims to demonstrate the importance and relevance of mathematics in students' everyday lives.

"By developing problem-solving skills, students learn not only how to tackle maths problems, but also how to logically work their way through any problems in other aspects of their lives."

For Ethan, it provided a welcome opportunity to engage in one of his favourite subjects (he also loves art and computer science). 

"I entered because I wanted to practice my maths. Trying to focus on each task and not get distracted was a big challenge, so I was very happy and surprised when I found out my results," says the talented 13-year-old.

But although this is his first year at ACG Sunderland and his first entering AMC, he's no stranger to mathematics accolades. Ethan excelled in the subject at his previous school and placed at Mathex two years running.

"I'm just good at maths, I guess!"