Stina Peteri and Maija Korpi from Oulu represented Finland in the European Money Quiz, a competition on financial knowledge for 13–15-year-old students across Europe. The Quiz was organised for the first time and had participants from 25 European countries.
“In the first round, we maybe answered a couple of questions too quickly. The second round was much harder, and we took more time to think”, Peteri and Korpi analyse their performance. This year the podium was taken by Poland, Ireland and Germany – the scores of the other 22 teams were not announced.
The Quiz was hosted by the European Banking Federation, and it covered topics such as cyber security, interest, currency exchange rates and financial terminology. All questions were practical, focusing on everyday scenarios.
The duo from Oulu had practiced their strategy for the competition beforehand. “Stina will press the button and I will yell at her. RED! RED! PRESS RED!” Korpi recounted. The quiz consisted entirely of multiple choice questions with different colours for different choices. In addition to accuracy, speed was also a scoring factor.
The contenders’ thoughts before the final (in Finnish)
“It was so nice to see people from other countries. Getting to the final makes the quiz more interesting for the whole class, since our friends want to know how we’re doing”, Peteri and Korpi noted.
Applying for the final
The duo from Oulu was selected to represent Finland through the Zaldo financial learning website, where their class – Merikoski school 9B – scored the most points. Students in the winning class wrote “job applications” to take part in the final, and the decision was ultimately made by their principal after interviews in English.
“The Zaldo material wasn’t easy. The financial problems seemed to have many possible solutions. But the practice assignments were useful”, Korpi says. “We’ve learnt more on topics we already knew something about”, Korpi starts, “and also learnt words we had heard before but didn’t know what they mean, like deflation”, Peteri finishes.
The Zaldo material is available for everyone. It was produced by Finance Finland, Junior Achievement Finland, and the Finnish Financial Ombudsman Bureau. It was also funded by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion.
Korpi and Peteri have now studied financial topics for a year. In Finland’s new curriculum, financial topics will be included in social studies at a younger age.
Want to see how well you would have done? The quiz questions and correct answers can be found here .
