The results of the 2019 British Physics Olympiad (BPhO) (China Division) have just been announced. Nearly 1,900 students from 171 national high schools and international schools have taken part in the competition. We are so proud that some of our high school students won a global silver award and two global bronze awards! Congratulations to Freddy Li, Global Silver award winner from Grade 10 and the Global Bronze award winners David Zhang and Peter Liu from Grade 10.

Freddy Li(L); Tutor: Mr Luke Lu(L); David Zhang(R); Peter Liu(R)

The British Physics Olympiad is a charitable trust overseen by a committee of trustees. It was initiated in 1979,and has been used as a qualifier for the selection of the UK Physics Team for the International Physics Olympiad since 1983. The competition aims to expand the students' thinking ability and stimulate the students' potential in physics. Although most of the questions are based around the current GCSE curriculum, students will be able to gain more marks if they have a general knowledge in physics as well as taking a keen interest in practical work in lessons. The competition is quite a challenging event as it’s divided into two levels of difficulty. One for students from the GCSE grade of the A Level course, and another for students from the AS grade of the A Level course.

Grade boundaries for each award are set according to standards by students from the UK. Scores from competitors in China received awards according to these grade boundaries. All papers are sent to the UK and graded by appointed examiners from the Department of Physics at Oxford University.

The level of difficulty of The British Physics Challenge (BPhO) is quite high. The questions require AS and A Level physics knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge to new situations and problems in a creative way. High School Physics teachers, Lu Shoukui and Zhou Jue helped the students prepare for the competition. In particular, Freddy Li and David Zhang, students in G10, prepared a lot for the physics competition club. During their break time, they would do extra exercises and ask questions to the teachers which laid a good foundation for the excellent performance in the competition.