Junior maths challenge 2025

swdd

I understand the maths behind the 86-91 range but the point I was making is how likely is is that the cohort had 1+ gold certificates at least and nobody sat a kangaroo. Its quite plausible there were only 2 golds and my DD could have scored 86-88 and top of yr 89-91. But I ask is this likely? I think it's more likely than not that some (incl perhaps my DD) qualified for the Kangaroo but then the school never took the exam.

On the prep for the JMC I will add an observation. When she finished the maths app mid Yr5 I knew she was very much ahead. But then it was like where do we go from there? I really think she could have had a good attempt at GCSE in perhaps Yr6, definitely Yr7. Instead we just "parked" maths and did no extra. Over time what she's done is kind of filled in the gaps just with the maths she does at school, its not more advanced than what she was doing years ago but she's had the practice and application to consolidate her knowledge, added to extra maturity, exam practice and allocating time better in exams. In time you'll see this with your DD.

On the JMC/IMC/SMC relative difficulties my understanding generally is they arent tests of advanced theory, more about applying quite basic theory in a creative/ unconventional sense. The biggest gap from reading around seems to be the JMC to IMC jump. I think if my DD took an SMC mock there could be theory gaps but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Don't fret. You'll see it all come together over time.

But then it was a bit weird, gold was the range 86-91, she didnt get top of year yet she can't remember anyone doing a kangaroo, including herself. @Jonny234

There are 5 possible outcomes for the range 86-91, such as 11q5+6q6=91, 12q5+5q6=90, 13q5+4q6=89,14q5+3q6=88, 15q5+2q6=87.

Looking back if I had any advice for a yr5 it'd be don't prepare for the JMC, we never did

That’s why I think your DD‘s results are even more impressive. I’ve been teaching mine competitive maths since she was very young. I even taught her up to the GCSE level, though without enough practice, she still struggles under time pressure like this year’s JMC. She loves maths and solving hard problems but isn’t the self-motivated type, so I doubt she would have made it this far without my constant guidance and instruction.

and perhaps falling short in one exam after success in others has to be put in context. It's like confidence mentoring.

Agree. Resilience training is a key part education. My DD needs these kinds of small setbacks to help her grow. Exams can be ridiculous sometimes, but you still have to adapt to them no matter what.

This means she'll have taken the JMC IMC SMC all in 2026, which I think will be great for her.

Good luck! This is proof of your DD’s excellence in maths, but it also highlights an issue with the UKMT JMC-IMC-SMC exam structure, as as there is no significant progression in difficulty.

By the way swdd, your DD taking it as a yr 5 and competing at almost the top level is exceptional.

My DD had a bit of a strange experience. She first took it as a yr6, I'd actually forgot until she'd finished year 7 and then looked back through my emails and found she got gold in year 6. But then it was a bit weird, gold was the range 86-91, she didnt get top of year yet she can't remember anyone doing a kangaroo, including herself. It just feels as though the follow on round wasn't done at the school. I don't know if she did or didn't qualify.

Looking back if I had any advice for a yr5 it'd be don't prepare for the JMC, we never did, she just did loads of maths apps and took delight in completing them. I specifically remember in February Yr5 she mastered Doodlemaths to end of KS3. Then she was a little short in Cat4 NVR and VR and we got these up to 141+ in a months free trial of atomlearning over the summer.

Now I know my DD is well ahead of the game I don't really have much involvement in the nuts and bolts of it all, I leave it to her. But I do try and put things in context, i.e. harder exams = lower thresholds, and perhaps falling short in one exam after success in others has to be put in context. It's like confidence mentoring.

She's in a funny position now insofar that I was reading around about the IMC earlier in the year, top students universally said it was brutal, and it was. But then i saw some comments from students saying it was easier than the SMC (same 25 questions, more difficult, but 90 mins) because there was less time pressure. We've agreed she's going to try a couple of past papers in the summer and if she's at comfortable gold level we'll ask the school to enter her in the autumn. This means she'll have taken the JMC IMC SMC all in 2026, which I think will be great for her.

But like I say, your DD seems in a great place, and on current trajectory ahead of my DD. All the best in the future.

Thinking about it you may not be far off.

The IMC gold this year was just 61, the 2nd lowest ever. Cayley was the lowest since 2016. There is a rebasing exercise going on after recent "inflation".

On balance I believe a JMO qualification level in the 90s is far more likely than the 110's. I had a brief chat with my DD tonight before bed and we agreed it seems unlikely kangaroo will be much above 80, it might even be lower.

So overall I reckon 20/25 right will about make the cut for the JMO something like (135)+(76) = 107. I'd probably guess something around there. @Jonny234

My guess might be a bit wild, but I suspect the thresholds could be similar to those from 20 years ago. In the 2006 JMC, the threshold for JMO was 92 and for Gold was 66 (there was no Kangaroo round back then).

This was my daughter’s first time taking the JMC as a Year 5 student. She found some of the earlier “easy” questions unexpectedly time-consuming and tricky. She told me it took her 20 minutes to complete the first nine questions, which made her feel stressed and prevented her from thinking clearly about the more difficult problems—many of which I suspect she would have solved in a less pressured environment. Unfortunately, she ran out of time and didn’t attempt the final six questions at all!
Although she has consistently scored around 100 in timed mock exams at home, I estimate she may only reach 70s this time, if she’s lucky. We still hope she will narrowly achieve a gold award as the boundary is expected to be much lower.
I don’t mind the level of difficulty, but I am not happy with the inconsistency in the paper, particularly in the progression of difficulty between questions. As some posters have mentioned, the earlier questions were even harder than some of the later ones.

P.S. For reference, she scored 101 on a mock test using the 2018 paper, where the gold threshold was 75, Kangaroo 82, and Olympiad 105.

her take on it was the first 5-6 were easy and then the remainder were about a similar level through to the end. For example she found Q7 hard but Q24 very easy.

This is similar to what my DD said - she doesn't remember the numbers but said she found some questions in the second part relatively easy and a couple in the first part unexpectedly hard.

I forgot to add for contect. My DD overheard 2 of last yr's kangaroos discussing the exam. Last yr the threshold was 100+ for this. Both said they guessed 7 questions this yr and thats with an extra years expereince. On that basis the kangaroo is going to be nowhere near last year's mark.

My Yr8 DD took the exam today. As expected she said it was significantly more difficult than last year when she scored 130.

When she took the IMC a few months ago she said the fist part till Q16 or so was same as past papers but then it ramped up horribly like no past paper she had taken before, she didnt finish the paper, but still qualified for the Cayley.

With the JMC today and the way the UKMT exams have got more difficult I expected very much the same.....but surprisingly she claimed it was and it wasnt. First of all she said it was more difficult, significantly so vs last yr....but her take on it was the first 5-6 were easy and then the remainder were about a similar level through to the end. For example she found Q7 hard but Q24 very easy.

She claimed to be pretty certain on 20 of them, very confident but not sure on another 2, good educated guess on 1, and then pot luck random on 2. I did ask at what JMO she'd start to worry and she said high 11teens, ie 118 or so. From what she's explained i think at 118 it'd be touch and go.

Then I asked what she thought JMO qualification would be and she said circa 104, in light of recent UKMT adjustments (IMC Cayley dropped 19 this year) this seems somewhere in the plausible range. I'd be surprised if it was 110+ and very surprised if it was 115+.

So overall I reckon 20/25 right will about make the cut for the JMO something like (135)+(76) = 107. I'd probably guess something around there.

Overall unlike last year I'm not unduly bothered because after her IMC success in recent months she's already proven she can operate at a higher level so in the event she dropped to Kangaroo she could just put it down to being a bad day.

@chilled31 That’s true. Let’s wait and see then! Fingers crossed. Would be so nice for him to get a decent result. He’d be really chuffed.

@user149799568 That’s great to know, thank you!

The deadline to upload papers is actually midnight tomorrow night UK time. Students in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia won't do the contest until tomorrow. The submission deadline is the same for everyone.

UKMT ask to embargo the paper until 08:00 Friday UK time. Questions and solutions should be on their website by mid-morning on Friday.

My son did the JMC today. Last year he qualified for the JMO in Y6 having only got one (easier!) question wrong so he got 130, but this year he is sure he got two wrong and possibly a third too. Knocked his confidence a bit. He scored gold in the recent IMC and got a gold in the Grey Kangaroo too so went in feeling excited today..

DD found it very hard as did all her friends and she is quite strong in Maths. @OpenaBook123 it doesn't say much about chances, since it may have been hard for everyone, the award thresholds might be lower this year. We will find out soon!

The deadline to submit papers is 11.59 tonight (and I imagine that will shift with time zones) so the window is still open. But after that, does the UKMT release the answers on their website right away?

@MTHRVRD2030 I’m curious too. My DS did two past papers (no other prep at home or school) and he would have qualified for the Kangaroo both times. But today’s paper he said he ran out of time and basically had to guess three answers. So I think the chances of a similar outcome are slim this time round! He’s in Y5 and it was his first time doing it, so we weren’t expecting much.

Now, JMC 2026 taken, what are your DC‘s impressions? Harder than the previous years‘ papers?

No she didn't. She got well advanced by year 5 (to about end of KS3) by using apps and then kinda stopped doing extra. Since then it's just been schoolwork and the minimum amount of homework.

Like I could say she spends no time on it but she normally finishes 1st in class and high accuracy so she might have an extra 20 mins at the end of lessons working on harder stuff other kids dont get to. None of it's UKMT stuff tho, just a harder level of what went before.

They've a lot of subjects at this age and to be honest the fact the maths is sorted means she has more time to devote to everything else.

Edit: I forgot, she does a once a week lunchtime club at school and sometimes they'll do UKMT problems.

Very impressive result, especially with no preparation on Carley. Did she do any other maths enrichment or competition work at school/home, or truly zero preparation? She is clearly very talented.

She'd done no prep at all, I just see it as great experience for her and just hope she can get some traction on something. She did.

Merit.

Great! How did she find the Carley this year?

Last years 125 was insane as you say and very unfair, it got so high that it didnt distinguish the most capable in my opinion. Luckily my DD was on the right side of it but it could easily have gone the other way as it did for so many others.

I didn't say before but unlike when she did the JMC last year my daughter actually prepared for the IMC this yr. Took 3 past papers at home and did very well on them, 1 above cayley level for that yr, and 2 above maclaurin level for the other years. But the IMC came and it was brutal, when i saw her after school she was genuinely shellshocked. Fortunately she had enough in the bag to qualify for the cayley. One thing, I do not think she had a discrepancy in the IMC when it came to theory which i was surprised at as she hasnt gone beyond KS3 and the exam includes KS4.

With her at this level we've agreed she doesnt need to do anything for the upcoming JMC, as the practice from the IMC should still be fresh in the mind. Ok she's going to have an extra year vs last and the exam will likely be harder, but there's no way it'll be as hard as the IMC this yr.

The only way I can see her failing to qualify is a bad exam or a silly 125 threshold again, but for the reasons I've stated I think this will be unlikely.

Since your DD already qualified for the JMO last year, perhaps she could ease off a little bit this time? She has already proven her ability, and if things do not go as planned, I suspect she might still be able to take a discretionary route. I would not place too much weight on the JMO anyway, as it is merely a preliminary step toward more significant Olympiads as Hamilton, Maclaurin, MOG and BMO.
Last year’s 125 point threshold was insane. It does not reflect the standards of a proper Olympiad qualification when the margin of error is reduced to such an extreme. If she got just one easy question and one hard question wrong, even with everything else correct, she would still be out. I would be happy to see an improvement in the difficulty levels this time.
The Kangaroo seems to have a different style; it is more witty and less formal in its mathematical approach. The IMC is a bit harder, but some problems might not be appropriate as they require Year 9 to 11 knowledge.Using JMO past papers to prepare for your DD's JMC seems like a good idea. It provides the right level of challenge without wasting time, as the JMO is her actual goal anyway.

I was surprised my DD didn't mess up last yr, as she has a tendency when she finds things easy to not pay due attention leading to errors. She ended up qualifying for the Olympiad. But as things were I told her at the time don't be disappointed if you don't make it next (this) year.

Things have since changed, the IMC Cayley level dropped from 105 last yr to 86 this. She took it and said it was nothing like any past paper she'd ever done, at the back end (Q17 onwards) it was far more difficult than usual. This was a consensus from everybody who was gold level or higher. For those lower maybe answering just the first 15 or so they might not feel any difference.

Just looking at the SMC, the gold level is 72 this yr, the lowest since 2002. I read a comment online from someone who did both the IMC and SMC and claimed the former was more difficult because it seemed impossible to complete it all in the 60mins whereas the SMC is 90 mins.

I might be optimistic with my 100-110 Olympiad prediction, the way things have been it could easily drop into the 90s.

Makes me wonder how is best to prepare....if it does go the way I expect is practising past JMC papers any use? Will the Q's be too easy? Instead should one be revising with JMC kangaroo papers and maybe the first 10 or so questions of IMC past papers?

I hope your prediction is correct. My DD is good at the last 10 questions but always makes silly mistakes in the first 15!