Senior Maths Challenge

I didn't think the senior maths challenge went well at all. I tried the last 3 years' papers over the weekend, and got 85, 93 and 71, a wide range I know. The first 2 got me excited and I was hoping to get in the top 80s, securing a gold. However, I was so nervous beforehand and struggled to sleep, and I don't know if it was because of this, but I found it very hard. I answered about 14 in the first hour and a quarter, but I knew that wasn't enough to do well, so I had another look through, and took a total guess at some of them, but I found one that, though it looked impossible at first, actually had a nice little trick to it. I realised that when you have a number whose sum of digits is massive, the smallest number it can be is one which ends in as many 9s as possible. I managed to put down answers for 17 in total, and I wasn't sure if many were right at all. I saw the marking scheme today (it's already on the UKMT site), and I think I got 73 out of 125, which will be a silver if last year's boundaries hold true, though I won't know until the end of November!