Three Hamptonians have excelled in this year’s UK Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO), the prestigious competition which challenges pupils to solve linguistic data problems.
Upper Sixth Formers Pallav Bagchi and Daniel Morgan, alongside Fifth Year Henry Ayres, were amongst the 1,400 pupils who took part in round one of the UKLO 2022 earlier this year. All three pupils secured Gold Awards and were amongst 75 pupils invited to participate in the second round. In this paper, which was sat in person and lasted a gruelling 3.5 hours, candidates were presented with five linguistic problems taken from obscure languages spoken by only a very small number of people from around the world. In addition to solving the problems themselves, candidates were also asked to provide technical explanations as to how the language worked, a step up from the tasks required in round one.
Pallav Bagchi received a Merit for his performance and Daniel Morgan secured a Distinction, having ranked tenth out of the 75 candidates. Daniel was therefore invited to attend the training camp at the University of Warwick – a feat accomplished by Pallav two years previously. Attendees of the camp can expect to receive training from three linguistics experts (including university professors and past UKLO champions), and to sit a further exam, from which the UKLO committee will make their selection for the international squad.
Classics teacher, Miss Amy Winstock, who organises the initiative at Hampton, congratulated the pupils for their strong performance in this year’s UKLO:
Back to All ArticlesI am thrilled for Henry, Pallav and Daniel, who have performed brilliantly in not one but two rounds of the UKLO. Thank you for your hard work and commitment, especially with your public exams on the horizon, and for inspiring budding linguists to give the UKLO a go!
