22 February 2021

The annual UK Linguistics Olympiad, UKLO, went ahead online this year at the end of the half term. There are four levels of difficulty in the UKLO, and 26 Abingdonians were up for the challenge of taking on the highest level; the advanced paper consists of five fiendish problems decoding real or invented languages from a few cryptic pieces of information. We had a number of practice sessions online looking at past problems and sharing top tips, and some of our most successful competitors from recent years took a lead on this; Joe Betts was outstanding in the role, and Johnny Stavropoulos, our top performer for the last two years, was also ready to share his expertise. All the Abingdonians took on the challenge with great spirit, despite the extra difficulties involved in sitting the paper online, and I was particularly indebted to Mr Brittain for sorting out the technical side and submitting our entries. We look forward eagerly to the results!

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