The KBS congratulates Ava Mahony, a final year Masters of Taxation student, who  triumphed from a field of 60 of Ireland’s top students to become the first female gradireland National Student Challenge Champion and the first such champion from UL.
 
Ava qualified for the final from a pool of over 4,100 students who registered to take the National Student Challenge online. The online assessment put those students to the test, challenging their verbal reasoning; numerical reasoning; commercial competency and logical thinking. Once complete, students were ranked on a leaderboard, with only the top students qualifying to take part in the Final. 
 
Finalists were then set a series of 6 challenges to complete during the course of the Final. Challenges were set by gradireland in collaboration with Lidl, Boston Scientific, PwC, Jameson, SAP and EY, with the help of Irish psychometric testing company cut-e, and mirrored tests used by graduate employers in assessment centres, thus helping all students develop their employability skills. Ava and the other finalists were tested on Planning & Organising; Commercial Acumen; Persistence; Constructive teamwork; Creativity; and Innovative Problem Solving, all key attributes that top graduate employers look for when recruiting for their graduate positions.
 
Congratulations to Ava and also to Tiarnan McCaughan (Trinity College Dublin) and Ciara Browne (UCD) who won second and third place respectively.