Sunday, September 7, 2008 Printer Friendly Version

How Nigerian twins set new world record in mathematics

By Agency reporter


AS the Standard Assessment Task results for seven, 11 and 14 year-old are being published, children as young as seven-years-old made examination history this year as the youngest candidates ever to write advanced level mathematics exams in Britain.



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The twins



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Black pupils as young as seven and eight, who are enrolled on the Excellence in Education Programme wrote the A-level and General Certificate of Secondary Education papers in mathematics. Most students across the country (Britain) sit their A-levels at 18 and GCSEs at 16, after studying the courses for two years.

All EIE students who wrote the SATs scored level 5s in all three students, indicating that they are working at least three years ahead of the government benchmark.

Two of them are black twins (from Nigeria), Peter and Paula Imafidon, who passed their GCSEs in mathematics at six and wrote A-level papers in mathematics at the age of seven, during this academic year. They attend a normal state primary school and currently in year three, but participate in sessions by the Excellence in Education, a non-profit alliance of charitable organisations, churches and other organisations, which run Saturday schools in inner cities.

Peter Imafidon was excited after the paper claiming that ”the first half of the paper was quite easy, but the last two questions were harder.”

Paula, Peter‘s twin sister said ”the exam question was very similar to the questions from previous years and were not as difficult as expected.”

Last year, the twins‘ elder sibling, Samantha, broke the world record by passing the Cambridge Advanced Mathematics paper with the highest grade at the tender age of nine.

She compiled her revision notes on calculus into a second book, Short cut to Calculus, to help the twins and other friends understand advanced mathematical concepts.

In order to help their mates, the twins have also jointly compiled a book on how they solve mathematical puzzles and problems.

According to a spokesperson for EIE, Ms. Hannah Christian-Rivers confirms that ”some kids would want to express their passion for a particular subject regardless of their age.”

Therefore, Peter, and Paula, have become the youngest A-level candidates ever.

Before now, the youngest girl was nine-year-old Ruth Lawrence, who wrote her mathematics paper at nine. Anne-Marie Imafidon, Peter‘s older sibling is the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing and last year, Samantha Imafidon became the youngest pupil ever to pass the University of Cambridge‘s Foundations of Advanced Mathematics with the highest grade at the age of nine.

EIE has observed that there are keen and passionate children all over the country irrespective of post-codes, or social background.

These kids are not ”whiz kids” or geniuses, but normal kids who have been given the opportunity to express their enthusiasm in a subject.

EIE believes that children have an instinctive ability to be explorative, inquisitive, and learn intuitively, and so must be allowed to do so at their own pace.

Source: excellenceineducation.org.uk


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