The Grand Finale of the 2018 National Science & Maths Quiz will be held today at the National Theatre at 9:30a.m prompt.
This year’s edition has been nothing but a bag of mixed emotions as all 135 schools who competed fought fiercely to make it to the grand finale. There were sad moments, there were shocking moments, there were happy moments and there were moments of utter dismay.
In all these moments, NSMQ2018 has so far been thrilling and as we inch closer to the last moment of this year’s edition, let’s have a look at bits and pieces of these significant moments in the journey so far.
It’s pretty usual in the history of NSMQ for “Giants” to be slayed by so called “low-performing” schools but for a first timer to beat a two-time champion with vast experience in NSMQ, that’s quite unusual. Sonrise SHS, a school based in the Volta Region, made its first appearance in this year’s edition and sent the internet wild as they won their contest against Opoku Ware School and Berekum SHS in the preliminary stage of the competition.
Islamic SHS, based in Ashanti Region, also first timers, did themselves proud by making it to the quarterfinals, hence getting seeded for next year’s edition of NSMQ. It is worthy of note that up until 2015, Islamic SHS did not have science as part of the programmes studied in the school.
Since the inception of NSMQ, only two all-female schools; Wesley Girls’ High School and Mfantsiman Girls’ SHS have made it to the finals. Every year, people look forward to having at least, one all-female school in the final stage and subsequently winning the competition alas this year, only one all-female school; Krobo Girls’ SHS was able to make it past the quarterfinal stage.
Sandema SHTS, the first seeded school and currently, the only seeded school from the Upper East Region also did great. A staying-power, they have. Usually, contestants lose confidence and the strength to fight when they trail in most of the round.
However, that was not the case with Sandema SHTS. In their preliminary contest against Berekum Presby SHS and Tamale Girls’ SHS, they trailed in the first four rounds but kept on fighting till the last round where they tied with Berekum Presby SHS and eventually won the contest by answering the tiebreaker question correctly.
If polls are anything to go by, the list of finalists will look different from what we have now. Per the polls conducted on twitter, people expected both Mfantsipim School and Prempeh College to win their respective semifinal contests to make it to the final stage, but it turned out differently.
West Africa SHS were resilient; absolutely unbeatable in their semifinal contest, kicking our reigning champions, Prempeh College out of the competition and dashing their hopes of winning their fifth trophy and being at par with Presec, Legon.
Between Mfantsipim School and Adisadel College was a fierce battle, but the fighting spirit of the Santaclausians was a tad too much for the Mfantsipim Boys to handle. Adisadel College now holds a record of making it to the final stage four consecutive times.
NSMQ2018 wasn’t only about the theory based aspect of science but also, practical. Our Sci-Tech fair presented the opportunity for students to display their science projects and we had an array of amazing inventions from our young men and women.
We also had a picnic to have some time away from the books and have some fun to calm the nerves of our contestants.
