The UK’s biggest-ever online maths challenge will be held next month.

The Four Nations Maths Challenge, hosted by the team behind World Maths Day, will see students from Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales go head-to-head to answer as many maths-related questions as they can.

The competition aims to change the way students perceive maths by putting it into an arena previously reserved for sport.

Jayne Warburton, chief executive officer of 3P Learning, whose learning platform Mathletics powers the competition, said: “Scotland did very well in World Maths Day 2010. Can they repeat their success in the Four Nations Maths Challenge?”

During the competition, students will be adding, subtracting, dividing, problem-solving and doing other forms of maths. They can choose to answer questions from a large bank of curriculum-based questions or go head-to- head to answer as many mental arithmetic questions as possible in live 60- second challenges.

The competition, which is free to enter, is open to all school-aged students in the UK. Individual as well as school prizes will be awarded at the end of the challenge, and the top student from each country will be selected as a World Maths Day ambassador.

The challenge commences at 9am on Monday, November 8, and runs until 3pm on Friday, November 12.

Schools can pre-register at: www.fournationsmathschallenge.co.uk.