01-05-2025
Gifted Edinburgh schoolboy wins top competition in worldwide 'maths Olympics'
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A talented Edinburgh schoolboy has won a maths competition after beating thousands of children across the world.
Abel Abby, a pupil at St John Vianney RC Primary School was the joint 11 winner of The British Youth International Colleges International Maths Olympiad challenge.
Out of thousands of students across the world who took part in this brain picking challenge, Abel took the victory leaving his dad, Abby Jose, 'extremely proud'.
Abel is one of two Edinburgh winners - the other being Tejas Mittal, who attends Calderwood Primary School.
The challenge is based on BYITC's pioneering Abacus Maths programme, with 50 questions in total and results based on accuracy and timely completion.
Students used concepts like finger, Abacus, and Mental theory. The top performers across each of eleven levels of BYITC Supermaths training were awarded certificates and trophies for their impressive skills.
Abel's dad, Abby said: "He has always been interested in maths and he really enjoyed playing with numbers growing up.
"He is so smart and he always completes the homework. I am just so proud and happy for him and I know he is happy with himself too."
Mum Jeffy Abby added: 'I'm so happy with the progress my child has made through the BYITC Olympiad. The questions really helped sharpen their thinking, and the support from teachers has been excellent.'
Abel said: "What helped me most was learning how to think through a problem. BYITC taught me not to rush, but to solve things the smart way. The teachers are really kind and explain things until I get it.'
BYITC's Founder, Dr Rashmi Mantri, said: 'Congratulations to each of the winners. Every child who took part deserves enormous credit as we can tell they gave it their best shot and worked very hard.
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'Young people are naturally competitive and derive lots of fun from playing and experimenting with numbers. Competitions like this prepare them for higher levels of assessments and exams as they go through their educational journey as they worked on time management and enhance their problem-solving skills.
'As we know from research, such high-level game playing significantly boosts logical thinking skills, an excellent preparation from a future which is going to be dominated by AI.
'Since we launched the Challenge, we have had more than 75 winners which is a great achievement. The success of our Olympiads and the sheer scale of entries from across the globe are very satisfying and give us confidence that there is a huge hunger out there for learning more about, and getting lots of fun from playing with, numbers.'
