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STUDENTS from Haberdashers’ Monmouth School have achieved outstanding results in the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad.

Pupils sat the national paper on January 24, students across year 12 and year 13 volunteered to take part in one of the most academically challenging competitions available to secondary school chemists in the UK.

Out of the year 13 students, two achieved gold awards and one achieved Silver, whilst within the year 12 students, two achieved silver awards, several achieved Bronze and two were short off from a bronze award.

The paper is two hours long sat under full exam conditions and requires an intense amount of concentration. The results took approximately three months to be returned to ensure there was consistency and fairness across more than 17,000 scripts nationwide.

Despite the paper being focused on Year 13 students, the style of questions goes beyond the A-level syllabus. Questions are written by professors from institutions such as UCL and the University of Cambridge which provided students with an opportunity to see what chemistry is like at a near undergraduate level.

Out of 17,241 entrants, only 8.5 per cent achieved Gold, 25.7 per cent silver and 36.5 per cent bronze, with 29.3 per cent students closely missed out on an award.

Tom achieved the highest mark within the school. Last year he secured a silver award, this year he progressed to Gold with his score placing him within the top third of gold winners nationally an outstanding achievement.

Mali and Harley who achieved silver awards while in year 12 at the time were studying A-level Chemistry for just three months, proving their resilience impressive.

The Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad is one of the UK’s most prestigious school-level academic competitions. Typically, only 25-30 students nationally are invited to progress to the next round, which can lead to selection for the International Chemistry Olympiad where four students represent the UK.