Each team member had to complete six questions selected from a pool of 100 submitted by all participating countries. Yun-pui, Hong Kong's gold medallist, scored full marks in five.

'If there's any secret to my success, it is my strong interest in maths,' the Form Six student said. 'When you discover your interest in a certain area, a natural drive pushes you towards digging out more of it.'

The difficulties they faced were way greater than the questions themselves.

'We had to cope with jet lag, bad weather and an unexpected typhoon that made us all sleep together in the hall,' On-yip said.

Yun-pui found it hard to maintain his level of concentration during the exhausting 31/2 hours. 'A candidate from China was sitting next to me, and it gave me great pressure to see him complete the test so quickly,' he said.

Jack Hui, on the other hand, was most frustrated by a question he could not solve. 'It was like being tripped over by a stone. I wasted much time picking myself up,' he said. Nevertheless, they have gained much more than just the medals.

Besides taking part in the competition, there were cultural events where they exchanged ideas with fellow mathematicians. They played a basketball game with some Armenians and had a long talk with their China counterparts at the farewell party.

Poon Ming-fung, a second-time participant in the competition, learnt to better manage his time in doing each question. Ming-fung, who was one mark below the standard for a bronze medal last year, got a silver this time. The seventh former said he would like to pursue his career in the maths field and was keen to do actuarial science as his JUPAS choice.

Among the 91 teams, China scored the highest overall marks, followed by the United States and Russia.