Maths a no-brainer for them
Munyai Rofhiwa Isabella and Sopariwala Mohmed Safvan are matriculants from Thohoyandou in the Vhembe district.
LIMPOPO – Rofhiwa has been taking part in the Amesa Olympiad competition since 2014 when she was in Gr 9 and never stopped since then.
Rofhiwa said she has always known that she loves maths and it has been her favourite subject at school.
Asked if she had always known she was good at maths she laughed and said: “Maths is an interesting and easy subject. If you understand the first chapter of the textbook, you will understand the rest of it as each chapter relates to the previous one. All the subject needs is time and patience, only then will one get it right,” she explained.
Mohmed backed her by adding that mathematics is the subject that he passes more than other subjects, because “it is easy”.
He explained that to be ready for this competition, he downloads question papers from South African Mathematics Olympiad.
“The papers are of a high standard, higher than that of Amesa, so it helps me a lot when I train myself,” he said.
He also explained why they were not allowed to use calculators when writing the paper, adding that it was not necessary as the sums given to them only required a basic knowledge of mathematics.
“They don’t give us large sums or logarithms to divide, it is more of multiple choice,” he added.
Mohmed told us that he had always known that he was good at maths as he had been taking part in this competition since Gr 5, and only managing to win his first in Gr 7.
When he completes gr. 12, he said he wants to study accounting science.
