Physics Olympiad Golds

Twenty Five Concord students entered the first round of this year’s British Physics Olympiad. The competition aims to challenge sixth form age students of physics (up to 6.2 – year 13) and recognises their developing knowledge and understanding of physics and, crucially, problem solving skills.
Of the 25 Concord entrants, four were awarded a “Top Gold” certificate, putting them in the top 4.3% of all 3,777 students. A further 6 Concordians were awarded “Gold” certificates putting them in the top 650 in the country.
6.2 student Noah who was awarded a Top Gold summarised the challenge “Taking part in the Round 1 competition this year was, as always, an exciting experience – the two back-to-back papers present some extremely interesting problems which are a joy to pick apart and analyse, providing a refreshing change of context and challenge compared to the A Level material. But they are also a great opportunity to learn – As with most similar competitions, I came out of the exam feeling that I knew far more and understood certain concepts in much more depth than when I walked in.”
For Reid, also a 6.2 Top Gold recipient, the Olympiad fitted well with his ambitions “Physics has been a passion of mine since I joined Form 4, and I have attended BPhO competitions since then. The problem-solving skills I have developed from these competitions have been extremely useful in the rest of my studies. As a prospective physics undergraduate, these competitions have also helped me develop key skills used in my interviews.”
Among the 25 entrants from Concord who took the papers were students in 6.1 and indeed Lower School. Impressively, Hayden and Xingzhi who were among the Top Gold winners are in 6.1 so younger than most entrants, and one of Concord’s Form 5 students also achieved a certificate.
Hayden explained the difference between working on A Levels and the Olympiad Challenges “My favourite part about problem solving is the satisfactory feeling after solving a complex question which involved various fields of physics and maths. Olympiad questions, in particular, are made in a style that is very different from A-level questions, they also cover a wide range of topics in Physics so they were extremely challenging and fun to solve”
For many students Olympiads provide an opportunity to support their future ambitions, Xingzhi for example who has an interest in computer science recognised the value that broader thinking and knowledge will play in his future: “Preparing for the BPhO also pushed me to go beyond the A Level syllabus to look at more advanced knowledge that might come in handy in the BPhO. I am thinking of studying computer science in the future, but nowadays being an interdisciplinary thinker is a valuable skill, so it is still useful for me to gain more insight into physics, especially considering how many aspects of physics are used in computer science, such as the use of quantum physics for building quantum computers.”
Dr Simon Richards from the Physics department who supports students entering the competition and runs regular physics challenges within Concord was delighted at the students success. He explained that achieving so well on such challenging problems is “a testament to the hard work of all of the students, the amount of study and effort that the students achieving Top Gold have put in is something to be very proud of.”
Dr Richards added “If you practice problem solving, you get better at problem solving.”