Upper secondary champs: Nur Nabilah (left), Arif Norman and Nur Nadhirah Syahmi (right) from MRSM Pengkalan Chepa were the upper secondary champions in the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds Kelantan state challenge.

Students show off their literary might and knowledge at competition.

WHEN teacher Aida Bandan from SMK St Thomas, Kuching found out that this year’s RHB-The Star Mighty Minds National Challenge would feature general knowledge questions, she decided to select three students from the school’s debating team.

Aida had no regrets. The all-boy team did her proud as they were the winners of the upper secondary category of the state level RHB-The Star Mighty Minds Sarawak state challenge held last Saturday in Kuching.

“I was quite surprised to be honest and it is good for them as I want them to have more exposure,” said Aida.

She had selected the trio from the debate team hoping it would be to their advantage as the boys were well-read and accustomed to critical thinking, as well as quick planning.

“We’ve been in the top five before but this is our first win and it is really unexpected as we had only found out about the hands-on challenge three days ago. We were still discussing the project over lunch just now,” said Radin Mohd Nurrazmin, 17.

The team did well in their oral presentation and were praised by the judges for their good command of English.

We won! Champions of the lower and upper secondary categories raise their hands in jubilation as they pose for the camera with the mock cheques.

“We still had so much to say during the oral presentation but we are glad that our presentation was well understood by the judges,” said Mohd Emir Imran, 16, while Mark Ergus nodded in agreement.

As part of their preparation, the trio had to read up on current news and events from the Internet.

“The participants were tested more on general knowledge in the multiple choice quiz, unlike the previous years where we had more Science and Maths questions,” said Nithya Sidhu, the head judge and content provider of the challenge.

As for SM Lodge, coming in second to SMK St Thomas by one point, was quite disappointing but they were glad that their all-girl lower secondary team won.

“We’ve won before. SM Lodge were the national champions last year in the upper secondary,” said team teacher Emily Jong.

Jong said that the team had a number of other teachers giving them tips and materials to read as part of the preparation for the competition.

“Our school had organised a competition even before selecting us to represent the school at the challenge,” said Phoebe Tan, 15.

Meanwhile, her teammates, Emily Gumal and Jasmine Chiam believed that the hardest part of the competition was in the preparation itself.

“We were going to have our exams in a few days, so we were quite unsettled and torn on whether to study for our exams or for the competition,” said Jasmine.

Time to tabulate: Quizmaster Sivashankar Krishnapillai (left) with Sidhhu and Events Section manager Victor Cheong deciding on the winners at the Kelantan challenge.

Both teams displayed a good level of creativity and they received praise and applause from RHB Regional Director of Sarawak Region Johanna Abdullah who was there to give the prizes away.

“The hands-on challenge is the best part of the competition as it really nurtures creativity and I really like what I have seen today,” said Johanna.

However, the teams were lacking in their general knowledge of current events and this was obvious during the buzzer quiz.

“Those who managed to answer well are usually those who read a lot and keep abreast of current events and happenings. They also have a habit of reading the newspaper on a daily basis,” said M. Rajah, editor of The Star Sarawak and Sabah.

As for the Kelantan challenge which was held the week before, language was clearly a barrier for some of the participants.

Stammering through the oral presentations, many also answered the buzzer questions in Bahasa Melayu despite being told that their answers had to be in English.

However, this was not a problem for the upper secondary winners from MRSM Pengkalan Chepa.

The team comprising Arif Norman Zulfikar, Nur Nabilah Hamid and Nur Nadhirah Syahmi, all aged 17, blazed through the competition and came out 15 points ahead of the rest.

“We speak English in school,” said Nur Nadhirah. She added that being fluent in the English language made it easier for them to explain the workings of their hands-on model to the judges.

SMK Dato Ahmed Maher, Kota Baru, was champion in the lower secondary category.

Fatin Halili Mhd Hulaimi, Nur Nadiah Suhaimi, both 15, and Afrinaa Mohamad Ziyadi, 14, said that the oral presentation was challenging and “scary” but that they were prepared for the multiple choice and buzzer quizzes.

The trio read more books and general knowledge magazines like Readers Digest.

Jointly organised by Star Publications (M) Bhd and RHB Banking Group, the competition will be taking a break until June 15, when it will be held in Penang. Interested students from Penang, Johor, Terengganu, Perlis and Perak are welcome as there is still time to sign up.

Upper secondary winners at the National Challenge will win a trip to the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin, Ireland, sponsored by the Penang Medical College.

For details, contact The Star’s Customer Care Unit at 03-7967 1777/1703 or visit
www.thestar.com.my/mightyminds.

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