'Inspirational' Slough maths prodigy, 15, becomes UK regional champion

A young Slough maths wizard has been crowned the British South East champion after scoring top marks in a national competition.

Jakub Ozga, 15, went up against the UK’s finest mathematical minds in the Haley Olympiad challenge, run by the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT).

The St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School pupil, who scored a gold medal in last year’s challenge, said he was ‘overwhelmed’ to have scooped the unexpected title.

Jakub told the Express: “Honestly, it feels great.

“Last year, when I got the gold medal I didn’t think there was anything better than that. There’s nothing on the [UKMT] website.

“Then when I got the South East certificate, I was overwhelmed.”

The two hour test features six questions, each worth 10 marks.

Jakub said the first proved particularly complex and battling to complete it left time ticking to finish the rest.

“When I did the test, I completely missed out the sixth question,” he said.

“There were six questions and I completely missed out the last one, so I thought I could settle for a silver medal at least.

“It turns out it didn’t cost me much because I got a gold medal anyway.”

One of the questions Jakub was tasked with posed a water tank with unknown dimensions but three constant factors, two of which were given.

The water level of the tank would drop when one factor was removed, and the challenge asked what the unknown factor was.

Jakub said he had cracked the question by ‘just working out an equation’.

Once the test was out of the way, an anxious wait followed for the results to be counted.

Jakub said, “Every day since I did the test, I kept checking on the website whether there was a score boundary for the gold medal.

“When it came out and I saw it was 41, I was just overjoyed – I beat it by seven marks.”

Nerves were compounded by the prospect of a mystery arithmetic rival, also vying for the regional champion crown.

Jakub said: “I do know there’s someone nearby who's also very prolific in the competition, so I didn’t think I would get top in the South East.”

Stefan Collins, Jakub’s maths teacher since Year 7, said he was very proud of his ‘inspirational’ pupil.

“Especially when you have other schools next door such as Eton only a few miles or so away – one of the top private schools in the country,” he said.

The youngster, a Barcelona fan who loves playing football in his spare time, is preparing for GCSEs, but may soon be preparing for bigger challenges too.

Mr Collins said, following Jakub’s champion-winning result, the UKMT has offered to provide tuition to Jakub with a view to future competitions.

And one day, competing for the UK.

“The more intelligent [Jakub] gets, the less intelligent I feel,” Mr Collins added.

“It’s not just the mathematics class really, we have students across the school who will take pride in Jakub’s achievements, and it gives them inspiration.”