The answer is four, because Tamworth Public School and Calrossy have both come away with two top achievers each in a renowned, state-wide competition.

The results are in for Newcastle Permanent's 40th annual Primary School Mathematics Competition, where over 17,500 Year 5 and 6 students across 290 schools took part.

Oliver Burrows and Lucas Strugnell from Tamworth Public and Aditi Rajput and Joshua Suter from Calrossy came away with district awards.

"I loved all the addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, everything about it was pretty fun," Joshua said.

"It's a pretty cool thing, but it wasn't something I had expected to win," Lucas noted.

While all agree parts of it were quite easy, they had to muster all their brain power by the end.

"There was a couple of questions I found really hard and didn't think I got right, but I must have," laughed Oliver, who was almost nine points in front of his runner-up.

Aditi said she hadn't been able to put any preparation in, but found it really fun anyway.

"I think I was more surprised that I won than my friends were, they weren't shocked at all," she confessed.

"I love it because maths has rules and they never change, it's not like English."

Newcastle Permanent's Tamworth Branch Manager, Julie Callander, said she was very proud to meet and congratulate the bright young people.

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"It's clear these students have an aptitude for maths and we'll no doubt see big things from them in the future," she said.

Chief customer experience and delivery officer, Paul Juergens, said the Primary School Mathematics Competition has been encouraging students to become enthusiastic about maths for 40 years.

"We know this year has been a difficult year for students, teachers and parents but the outstanding results of Tamworth students clearly reflects continued dedication and commitment of many to learn and test themselves despite these external challenges," he said.