The boys and girls of Methodist Senior High School, Sekondi appeared to have found the right physics equation to building a titanic ship that will not sink. That was the promise from the NSMQ 2024 contestants ahead of the first contest on Day 2 of the Western Regional qualifiers.
“We are more prepared than the Titanic ship. We can’t even sink. Expect the best from us. Of course, we are Methodist Senior High. We are here to prove our best”, one of the contestants bragged.
This level of enthusiasm from the green boys and girls could only be justified on the fact that they have never broken out of the shells to qualify to the national stage in the history of the National Science and Math Quiz (NSMQ).
“This year, we want to go to the national. It’s like they are considering us like some underdogs. So they’ve exempted us from their budget. Meanwhile, we are the main item to consider. What we are here to show them, unless the contest doesn’t happen”, another contestant boasted.
But, this momentum couldn’t be sustained for long.
By the end of Round One, Methodist SHS had begun their lead from the bottom with only 9 points. The trialing continued all through until they finished all four rounds, managing just 12 points (adding a point each from the remaining 3 rounds).
Fiaseman SHS carried the day with 50 points, leaving Sekondi College behind with 38 points, Ahantaman Girl’s SHS 24 points, and Methodist SHS 12 points.
The contestants after the competition, have a justification for their not too enterprising performance. According to them, they have misplaced their ‘X and Y’ on stage.
“We interchanged our X and our Ys, and I think that was the problem. But better luck to us next year. You see, in the film the parts have been found later so it means, our parts can also be found. We are going to work harder so look out for us next year” one contestant promised.
The second contestant added “We thought they were preparing palm nut soup. But when we came, we realised that they were preparing light soup. So the ingredient we had was different.”
He continued, “It’s not that we were misled. We didn’t buy enough ingredient. We should have bought ingredients for palm nut soup, light soup, and groundnut soup before we came. Next year, we’ll come well prepared.”
Methodist Senior High School will look forward to another year to hopefully qualify.