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They had to outwit their rivals in four rounds – an MCQ quiz, a hands-on challenge, an oral presentation and a buzzer quiz – before being crowned the ‘mightiest minds’ of their state. The RHB-The Star Mighty Minds upper and lower secondary champions can expect an intense battle at the national finals.

Participants from Malay College Kuala Kangsar showing the judges (from right) Oun Sui Leng, A. Alagesan and Loh Soon On their answer to the final question of the buzzer quiz, in which they were asked to match coloured balls to numbered tins based on clues given. Looking on is quizmaster S. Sivakumar (second from left).

Perak
THERE is always something new to be learnt from a stimulating competition such as the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds challenge. For example, the students in this state picked up the fact that China is the biggest rice producing country in the world, and that the most famous racquet sport is table tennis. In fact, those were the questions that got the students and quizmaster K. Sivashankar most boggled as almost none of the teams managed to get the anwers right!

Nevertheless, the team from Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) showed that cool heads give mighty leverage when they were crowned the champions in the upper secondary category. MCKK teacher, Les Suzina Jamil said the competition was a good exposure for her students as it is a platform for them to practise public speaking. “My students may be good in their studies but they are not as good in public speaking. The oral presentation challenge was a good test for them,” she said.

Lower secondary winners:
SMJK Sam Tet, SMK Anderson, SM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah

Upper secondary winners:
Malay College Kuala Kangsar, SMK St Michael, SMK Sam Tet

Sabah
St Francis Convent students Kirane Anne Tangau (right), Charlene Chee and Georgina (left) with their wheelchair model for their hands-on challenge. They traversed the hills and streams to come to battle it out at the state capital. Indeed, students from schools in remotes areas such as SMK Nabawan and SMK Pitas at the Pensianan district endured journeys as long as seven hours before they reached Kota Kinabalu to participate in the competition.

For others, it was a challenge of a different kind when a group of Form Four students, who just formed the team five days before the competition had to battle against their older contenders. Lady luck was smilling on them when Adam Abdul Rahman, Jerry Mclean Jonis and Rifhan Irdina Jupri from SM Sains Sabah came out as champions in the upper secondary category.    [Edit : I know we were pitted against 100+ teams instead of 60, but this news is a bit depressing =(  ]

“The idea was for this team to gain experience so we had no expectations of them winning,” said teacher Mohd Sham Sidek, adding that the school also sent its team of fifth formers who had been preparing for the competion for several months. Jerry attributed their win to the indispensable resources available on the Internet. “We surfed the Internet to read up on the the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds challenge events that have been held in other states so far this year,” he said. He said his team focused on the questions that were posed to the participants previously as a strategy to help them win.

Meanwhile, students from SM St Francis Convent emerged victorious in the lower secondary category. They exceeded the achievement of their predecessor team which took the second spot in the competition last year.
“Initially, we were hoping to get through the first and second rounds,” said Georgina Tai. “After making it to the top five, we then realised that we might have a shot for the top spot,” she added.

Lower secondary winners:
SM St Francis Convent, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara Kota Kinabalu, SM St Michael Penampang

Upper secondary winners:
SM Sains Sabah, SM La Salle, SMK Limbanak

Kedah
Lower secondary winners (from left) Tan Wei Wen, Yeo Mi Xia, Chew Khai Yi and upper secondary winners (from right) Ooi Ting Qian, Ng Yu Yang, Choy Wang Lynn, jumping with glee.

Lower secondary winners:
SMKJ Keat Hwa 1, SMK Agama Yan, SMK Sultan Badlishah

Upper secondary winners:
SMJK Keat Hwa, SM Sains Sultan Mohd Jiwa, SMJK Sin Min

Penang
Lower secondary winners:
Penang Chinese Girls High School, Chung Ling High School, Chung Ling High School

Upper secondary winners:
Penang Free School, SMK Tinggi Bikit Mertajam, Chung Ling Butterworth

Selangor
IF THEIR counterparts in the 13 other states had it tough, Selangor contenders of the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds challenge had it doubly hard. The reason: entry was open to 120 teams per category in Selangor instead of the 60 teams in the other states. Which meant that there were two big groups of students who sat with nail-biting tension as they witnessed the first batch get slaughtered in the MCQ quiz. It was the survival of the fittest, and students who could think quick and act fast qualified for the subsequent three rounds of the competition. Students who were well read breezed through the MCQ quiz as some questions on general knowledge, such as the number of Harry Potter books which have been released as films certainly did not faze them.

“I read up on general knowledge and browsed through a few IQ books to prepare for the competition,” said Yeow Liiyung, 16, from SMK Damansara Jaya.
Oh really? Heh.  XP

However, some of the teams fumbled when the judges upped the ante during the buzzer quiz challenge. There were a few aspiring doctors among the finalists in the lower secondary cagetory, but alas, none of them knew that doctors have to take the Hippocratic oath before they begin medical practice.

This question stumped the finalists during the final buzzer quiz: Sammy comes from a poor family. He works as a mahout to make ends meet. What does Sammy do? When the buzzers stayed silent, the quizmaster offered the following clue: You can find mahouts in Thailand and Sri Lanka. A participant’s answer of “male gigolo” [edit : this was Yew Leung's answer]  had the audience in stitches!
It was not all about the battle of wits either when the students had a practical task during the hands-on challenge. The lower secondary students constructed a waterfall using rainwater as a water source while those from the upper secondary built an electromagnetic bird cage.

Lower secondary winners:
SMK Taman SEA, SMK Seksyen 3 Bandar Kinrara, SMK Seksyen 1 Bandar Kinrara

Upper secondary winners (the awesome survivors =D) :
SMK Taman Melawati, SMK Damansara Jaya (T2), SMK Damansara Jaya (T1) 

All champion teams from both categories won RM3,000 and a desktop computer for their school. Prizes for the first and second runners-up were RM2,000 and a digital camera (school prize) and RM1,000 and a colour printer (school prize) respectively while the third and fourth runners-up won RM500 and RM300 respectively. The nationwide competition, where teams of three compete in two categories — lower and upper secondary — is jointly organised by Star Publications and RHB Banking Group. The food and beverage sponsor is McDonald’s Malaysia. All 14 state champions from both categories will now come together at Berjaya Times Square on Oct 16 and 17 for the national finals to battle for the grand prize of RM6,000 and the right to be called the country’s “mightiest minds”.

Catch the students in action by tuning in to ntv7 at 7.30pm on Wednesdays.