Over the last two weeks, a couple of our scholars participated in Maths and Physics Olympiads and achieved stellar results!
In the Brazilian Physics Olympiad (OBF), which took place online this year, seven St. Paul’s pupils made it to the second phase, including two of our scholars – Elisa and João Gabriel. About the experience, Elisa shared that: “it was a relatively new experience, as I had never participated in an academic Olympiad before, except for Maths – actually, I had never heard of OBF before! But I decided to take the test with my previous knowledge of Physics, acquired during my two years in the IGCSEs. The exam curriculum, as expected, was based on content taught in Brazilian schools and it was interesting seeing how it was applied in an Olympiad.”
As for João Gabriel, he felt as though “since the beginning of my preparation process, there was real engagement from teachers of the respective areas to dedicate extra time to help me with the content, alongside the regular lessons, which alone greatly contribute to our preparation for these competitions.”
In addition to making to the second round of OBF, João is also in the last phase of OBMEP – Brazilian Maths Olympiad – and recently participated in the Maths Olympiad OMU (Olimpíada de Matemática da UNICAMP). For this event, 84 teams from 14 states in Brazil were qualified and St. Paul’s team – formed by three Form 5 pupils, João Gabriel, Eduardo e Tiago – achieved, for the very first time, a silver medal! João believes such achievement was possible because of the school environment, which he will continue to take advantage of for further accomplishments.