Effervescent performance in Chemistry Race
Two hours, 59 teams, and a fast-paced national competition to test the strongest chemists in the country – the Chemistry Race. Earlier this term, a team of our Year 13s – Nicolas, Henry, Isaac, Philip, Shyam along with Miss Rose – travelled to the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at Cambridge, representing the school as the “Lean Mean Benzene Machines”. And finished 10th place!
Originally a Czech competition and expanded to the UK by Adam Přáda, the ChemRace is a so-called “unlock-style” group competition. Each team of 5 is initially given six questions from A1 to A6 (each representing the start to a chain of increasingly difficult Olympiad-level problems), only being able to access the next question once it has been correctly submitted. Each question began at 4 marks, but incorrect submissions carried a penalty: every wrong attempt docked a mark, down to a minimum of 1. This meant progress relied not just on speed, but accuracy too. With a colossal leaderboard looming over us in the Main Lecture Hall, tracking every team’s progress in real time, we soon felt the weight of our answers – because above all else - the team with the most points would take the win.
With this in mind, we prepared a strategy. Nicolas, desperate to give a stronger showing than last year, took stewardship over the nonsensical transition metals, Henry handled anything organic. This left calculations entirely bundled to Philip and our glorious team leader Isaac. It was during this period we also decided on a team name; after arduous debates (and for the better or worse) we landed on the “Lean Mean Benzene Machines”, a name we now look back on with pride.
The competition itself was a thrilling experience, with almost 300 people hunched over calculators and many – safely – running to the submission stands at the front every few seconds. There were many interesting questions that took us by surprise as well. One written by Ošamarben Ládaň discussed the enthalpy calculation of burning jet fuel (I have attached this for any budding chemists!) – a question Isaac thoroughly enjoyed - and several more frankly insane organic synthesis questions like that of synthesising 7α-thiomethylspironolactone and (−)-aurantioclavine. Many of the questions also came with some surreal backstories, which while rarely helpful, provided some much-needed humour in the midst of battle.
2 hours later, we had an opportunity to stroll around Cambridge while the final scores were totalled up. The last 30 minutes of the competition had the live leaderboard disabled, so our break was spent in dreadful suspense with no indication of how we may have done. Returning to the hall, the closing ceremony began. Not expecting much, we took a deep breath in. The room fell with silence. The screen flashed: 10th place – The Lean Mean Benzene Machines! While it certainly wasn’t a 1st place finish, we can be proud to say we did our best and had lots of fun - the trophy, badges and certificates certainly help too! We would also like to thank Miss Rose for her support and for sacrificing her weekend to drive and cheer us on. Best of luck to next year’s team – you’ll do great!
Article written by Nicolas, Henry, Isaac, Philip, Shyam (all Year 13)
