Junior maths challenge 2025

If your DC does better in the JK than the JMC you may wish to look at whether they made several calculation errors or slips in early questions of the JMC through whizzing through them . Then as JK starts a bit tougher it holds their attention better and they make less mistakes. This was often case for my DC!
Alternatively if there's little prep at all then the JMC can provide useful trial run to JK as format is very similar

My DS (Y7) was the same, got 107 in JMC and 123 in the Kangaroo challenge, but we havent seen any certificates at all, not even a printed one.

Great to hear the JMO has been marked. Fingers crossed the results will be out soon. Am hoping next week as a lot of independent schools break up on 4th July.

I'd argue it's 24/25 correct. It's unlikely that the 2 incorrect would be from section A imo.

There are 4 ways to qualify this year (non discretionary):
135/135 - zero incorrect
130/135 - 1 section A question incorrect
129/135 - 1 section B question incorrect
125/135 - 2 section A questions incorrect

I wouldn't advise anyone not much over 100 on the JMC to go for the JMO, surely the smart move would be to try for a G/S/B on the kangaroo?

The info you need regarding discretionary entry is here. https://ukmt.org.uk/junior-challenges/junior-mathematical-olympiad

On the balance of probability I strongly expect my DD will have to go the discretionary entry route next year.

"It's quite tough to reach JMO now. You have to answer correctly 23/25."

Really 'have to'? How about the discretionary entry? If one is confident in doing JMO problems with JMC score between 100 and 124, my impression is that one can still enter JMO by discretionary route(pay a small fee?) Anyone knows more about this route?

Statistico

I agree that it's maybe got to a level where the Olympiad threshold is too high, perhaps it needs to come down to say 115 levels. You wouldn't want to exclude a worthy Olympiad candidate just because they made a simple error or two.

I'm coming at this as a newbie and may question your Q5-Q30 theory from the available info.

This yr the JMC mean is around 54 marks and the Kangaroo seems to be around 90, quite a gap in itself, and around 6-7 questions.

Then is it fair to include what I'd say is an automatic baseline? If a candidate Pot lucked on them all, and circled any answer on either exam this would average out at 27.

So I'm thinking rather than Q5-Q30, it feels like more of Q10-Q35 level or perhaps Q10-Q15 plus double Q16-Q25.

@Whistlingformysupper yes they do get a certificate at least ds got one last year

So did mine @Whistlingformysupper

Does anyone know if kids get a certificate for the Kangaroo? For the jmc it was school that printed it off is it the same for kangaroo?

Interesting re kangaroo being harder. Mine did better on kangaroo than jmc...

I'd agree they shd just make any medal percentage boundaries the same.

It's quite tough to reach JMO now. You have to answer correctly 23/25. If you make a couple of mistakes and you don't get the total score, even if you understood all questions.
My feel is the UKMT challenges were not intended to be about exam technique*, well not at this age anyway, but it seems there's been a more competitive environment has meant the JMO threshold has jumped in last 4 years
https://mathsaurus.com/junior-maths-challenge-grade-boundaries/

So I wonder if moving to Gold, Silver & Bronze in Kangaroo is perhaps a way of awarding something to those candidates who a few years ago would have got into JMO. A good thing.

From (all) the available past papers if the JMC question difficulty is graduated from Q1 to Q25.
JK Question difficulty is (IMHO) actually like Q5-Q30 on that same JMC scale i.e. the JK is not lots harder than the JMC.

*Multiple choice helps a lot and rather than ultra-rational 'exam technique' a more fun approach is can you solve this question but from a different route

FYI. UKMathsTrust just posted the below on X along with a picture.

A huge thank you to our JMO Markers who volunteer their time to carefully review and mark student papers, helping to ensure fair and accurate results for all Olympiad participants. Results will be released in the coming weeks. Good luck, everyone!

Foxhasbigsocks

When I said they are almost the same I meant in terms of the grade boundaries for both the JMC and Kangaroo, and if so then why not standardise them? This would allow clarity regarding what is what.

Of course Kangaroo is harder than the JMC.

Because the format is the same I would expect a high level of correlation between performance in the JMC and the Kangaroo. There is a big difference between a 100 and a 123/124 kangaroo.

But lets say 120+'s on the original JMC relates/ maps/ correlates to kangaroo gold, 115+ silver kangaroo, and 110+ bronze kangaroo. If the grade boundaries were the same it'd just add a bit of clarity, a gold Kangaroo would lead to the presumption the candidate scored very high just off Olympiad level, and no medal at the Kangaroo would infer a candidate was not much above the kangaroo threshold.

The G/S/B boundaries are almost identiical as they are now for the JMC and Kangaroo but with this being the case I feel it's just be easier to make them the same.

@Jonny234 that’s an interesting idea about grade boundaries. When you say they are the same is Kangaroo not harder than JMC?

It might rekindle said love of maths..one thing they do which is smart is they often use short fun YouTube videos in the weekly parallelogram problem. That format seems to be like direct neural input for this age group!

Totally agree. Parallel Maths is an amazing free resource for anyone interested in maths.

Statistico

My DD's teacher was always suggesting parallel for her but she never got around to trying it. If she rekindles her love for maths anytime soon we'll give it a try.

Well done! hard luck on being an answer short for gold though :(

Just thinking, my suggestion for grade boundaries would be to standardise the JMC and the Kangaroo in whatever way they see fit.

Seems a bit unnecessary to have 50%/ 25%/ 8% grade boundaries for the JMC and then 60%/ 30%/ 10% for the kangaroo. They are almost the same.

I'll mention again (sorry for the third time) that I think this is the best free math resource out there.
https://parallel.org.uk/

It you're a math bright kid of course you will find your way but having watched my own kid learn maths there's a huge amount of properly fundamental stuff that I missed out on at this age.
Good math teaching matters and math teaching has improved lots in UK. DS primary school used Singapore math approach which is so good it seems totally obvious and astonishing that all kids are not taught this way.
The presenter/tutors on parallel are top level.
I'll be quiet now

Fantastic results!

We got our results this morning! Ds has done much better than we thought and got a high silver score on Kangaroo (just one answer off a gold). Relieved and pleased for him!

I’m still not convinced that having gold to bronze for this is a very motivating set of grades for the kids who do well enough to get through. I feel like Kangaroo distinction for the top 15%, Kangaroo merit for the next 15% and then just well done for taking part would be better.

As it stands the reward for getting through to Kangaroo with a high gold is going to feel to most kids like sliding “down” to silver, bronze or below bronze.

The lack of resources generally in the past was a major hurdle. These days it's all there for them. That said, not having them it did teach valuable life skills such as resourcefulness and resilience.

Someone earlier in this thread asked what suggestions do people have to get their kids to a competitive JMC level. My answer would be apart from looking at a few past papers to get familiarity with the questioning dont specifically study for it.

In my opinion get your kid on a maths app early and gently encourage them (not bribing). Try and make it a shared problem, get involved. With my DD on Doodlemaths I setup a spreadsheet, one column her actual age, the next her doodlemaths age, and showed her the progression over time. This was motivational for her to see progress she'd made. Start off maybe 1 level or 10 questions a day, when they finish ask them to try 2, perhaps 3 levels. In no time they are doing 10+ levels per day, trying to keep a streak, are fully engaged and it's easy for the parent. They kid takes responsibility for it all. These apps get harder gradually so you never really have to do any teaching.

Don't care about accuracy, if your kid's doing 100+ questions a day they learn from their mistakes automatically.

For a few years now my DD has just been coasting really, she does the bare minimum for maths apart from finishing early vs the rest in class and moving onto harder stuff. There is no extension work at home at all. It's all very economical.

I reckon anyone out there, just in the summer hols with the right approach can advance their kid 1yr in maths. It may be a tough start but once it gets rolling things can move very very quickly.

Well done to your son!
In the JMC & JK the questions are deliberately designed to not require extra topic knowledge, but having said that - if you've seen some particular approaches that can be very useful - a good example is there is often a shaded area of a compound 2D shape and the useful solution insight here is to subtract two different areas - once you've seen that idea once you will remember it.
These are things you are unlikely to have come across in school maths at y7/y8.

If interested there are 12 years of past papers for the JMC and 10 years for the JK available for free on the UKMT website, all with solutions
In particular the JMC has "Solutions and Investigations'" which are more detailed, extend math thinking and offer some insight into the question-setters style.
When I was a kid if that resource had been available to me I would have devoured it, not because I wanted to practise for the Challenges but just cos 'oh wow this maths is different from school stuff and fun' ! A handful of school friends the same

Has to be the parents especial at such young age for such an achievement which requires loads of time, dedication, patience and ofcourse they must be very mathematically capable themself too. Later on from secondary then it could just that they get to be very keen and could also come from peer motivation too

@NewTaupeBeaker I am in Bucks too and I don’t know a single person who has done tutoring for this and we are at a grammar. My son got Kangaroo silver but he didn’t do any work beforehand. I didn’t even think you could. Surely you can’t revise for a maths test like this?