Teams of Year 7-11 students battle it out to win the pride of place inscription on our Braben competition cup. We want to make it as easy as possible for your school to take part : a supervising teacher needs to register to invigilate on your school site…they can hold it any date/time in the competition fortnight for each of the two rounds and do not require any expertise in order to do so.

2021 Competition Outcome:

Congratulations to St Paul’s School, London for winning this year’s competition with an impressive winning score of 104 out of 120. Entries were up again this year including some new international schools. Questions from both Round 1 and Round 2 this year are available in our competition practice area. We hope to see everyone back next year for the 2022 competition.

2021 Dates

Round 1 competition window: Mon 25th Jan –  Fri 5th Feb 2021
Round 2 competition window: Mon 15th Mar –  Fri 2nd Apr 2021 (** note: extended entry for one week for schools that need more time to settle back & this year ALL students in a R2 trio are allowed to be in y10/11 to avoid cross-yeargroup events).

2021 Competition News:

In exciting news, as part of the new UKCT Challenges Progression Pathway, our competition will now be hosted on the same challenge system (Cuttle) used by Bebras UK and OUCC, making it simpler for teachers and students to take part. More details to follow soon but the new site (in beta form) can be trialled using the link in our practice page. All existing teachers on our database will receive details on how to sign up as coordinators on the competition site via our regular email updates; for schools new this year, a coordinating teacher must complete the form on the Register page to be kept informed on competition access.

2020 Competition News:

Round 1 competition window: Mon 27th Jan 2020 –  Fri 7th Feb 2020
Round 2 competition window: Mon 16th Mar 2020 –  Fri 27th Mar 2020

2019 Competition News: a huge well done to the 254 teams that made it into the second (& final) round of the PCTC 2019 competition. Teachers have been issued with results & certificates now: a particular well-done to schools featuring in the top ten teams including The Perse School (1st & 3rd), The Downs School (2nd), Pocklington School, UCS, Magdalen College School and St Olave’s Grammar School. Do join us again for 2020; the papers from this year are on the practice area now.

2019 Competition News: congratulations to the approximately 2500 students in round 1 and over 600 students who made it into round 2 this year. It was a fantastic competition and incredibly tightly fought at the top. Well done to all and we hope to see you back for 2020.

Format:

Students submit short code  solutions to a range of challenges which increase in difficulty across the two rounds and during a timed contest:

Round 1: 40 minutes, sat in pairs sharing 1 computer
Round 2: 60 minutes, sat in threes with 1 computer each

International schools may enter the competition for the purpose of certificate awards but only schools located in the UK will be eligible for the cup/prize money award.

Find out more in the competition overview, take a look at the practice material available or head straight for the registration form!