News.Scotland.Org

Scotland, Mar 11: In what could be termed as a remarkable achievement a student from Edinburgh as won the second price in the prestigious world mental arithmetic competition. Rock Tsui is the student and he is studying sixth-year at George Heroits’s School. He worked very hard to reach this height. The online exam conducted on the eve of World Maths Day attracted 750,000 participants. As part of the competition he answered over 60,000 questions at an average of 40 questions per minute.

While commenting on his achievement Rock said: “I finished 17th in the competition last year my primary aim this year was to enter into the top 10 position. During the competition that extends for two days I had only 30 minutes of sleep. I kept myself awake and the excitement of the competition gives me urge to be awake. My teachers advised me to take rest but I kept myself awake. I could not hold on to the first position even after tough fight.”

In total Rock answered 62,273 questions and remained in the first position for over 24 hours, after a tight competition he was narrowly beaten by Tatiana D a pupil from Australia. The contest consist of one minute games with a break of 20 seconds between each game, the competition is based on several arithmetic problems.

“We feel proud of Rock and his achievement; he brings glory to the whole school. Winning second position in a tough competition like this is recognition to the hard work of Rock and it is a moment of pride to his teachers,” said Alister Hector, the headmaster of George Heriot’s school.

Te World Maths Day contest is being organised by Australia based e-learning company 3P Jayne Warburton in partnership with Voyager Expanded Learning.