Junior maths challenge 2025

Almost time for the 2026 JMC sitting. One thing I will predict is in line with other recent UKMT exams I'm expecting it to be far harder than last year. The IMC paper in January 2026 was give or take about the most difficult ever.

I think the JMC Olympiad qualification threshold is likely to be like the pre 2022 scores in the 100-110 range.

AFAIK, children in Year 9 or below are eligible only to sit the Cayley even if they achieve a higher IMC score than the Hamilton or Maclaurin boundaries. Similarly, children in Year 10 are eligible only to sit the Hamilton even if they exceed the Maclaurin boundary on the IMC. So a child in Year 9 or below would need to sit the SMC and score highly on the BMO1 to be considered for the following summer's training camp.

Can younger kids sit in Hamilton or Maclaurin Olympiad, which seem only focus on year10and 11? I guess they are eligible for SMC and then BMO.

UKMT do both outreach and training for the IMO. The outreach programs are the ones where participants are selected randomly from the top 1.5% of IMC scores, no more than one per school, no school can send a child in consecutive years. The real IMO training starts with the Oxford camp at the end of summer. They used to select two dozen students each year though I think they found the funding for 30 last year. There are ~20 gold medalists on the Hamilton each year and another 20 on the Maclaurin. Since there is a considerable amount of overlap between these students, yes, the selection for the first camp is pretty much a gold medal in Year 10 or Year 11. UKMT run more advanced camps after the initial training where the selection criteria is mainly the BMO2 scores, but those take even fewer students and some are selected multiple times so it works out to fewer than a dozen (new) students a year.

So basicaly you have to be a top maths student to be trained (24 students nationally?) , not trained to be the top...

The MOG has a very different emphasis to the SMC. The SMC is still discrete answers to multiple choice questions, albeit with 1000 possible answers rather than 5. Most of the MOG requires the student to show full reasoning for solutions which are often proofs. Past papers and sample solutions are posted on the UKMT website, but coaching about the marking scheme is still quite useful and most children will need to study topics outside the National Curriculum such as number theory beyond the past paper solutions to do very well.

Selection for the Oxford summer camp is mostly based on performance on the Hamilton and/or Maclaurin Olympiads, and the BMO1 for children who take it early. AFAIK, UKMT don't look at the MOG for that selection. The national training camps teach the Olympiad marking schemes and advanced topics, yet it's difficult to qualify for that training if you haven't already learned much of it beforehand.

The MOG is a similar standard to SMC and preparation is really just past papers.

Students are selected for national training camps for the international olympiads, where the tutors/coaches are highly experienced.

It is the more advanced olympiads, like the MOG or BMO, that I was talking about. I couldn't find any classes for them on his website. While Kevin is clearly a maths powerhouse, that isn't the same as being a former UK olympiad team leader or medalist. Elite maths olympiads are a niche area, and a specialist is always the best choice.

@swdd have you done any of the stuff produced by Kevin? He certainly seems an absolute maths powerhouse with a maths degree from Oxford, PhD in maths etc

This is basically all done by one guy. I worry he might be spread too thin across too many levels to offer real depth in Olympiad training. It's not like the US, where you often have tutors with elite competition backgrounds, including the IMO.

Lots of good online, live courses run here:
https://mathsaurus.com/live-maths-and-problem-solving-classes-for-ages-9-18/

@GHGN
I noticed from another thread that your DC have done really well in the UKMT since Year 2! What year is your daughter in now and how did she get on in the Olympiads? Did you teach her all yourself? My DD is in Year 5 and is going to try her first JMC this year. Looking further on, it’s such a shame that we don’t have many Maths Olympiad classes here in the UK, unlike in the US. I’ve looked at the AoPS online courses for the future, but the time difference just won't work for my DD.

For the final 10 questions, I suggest increasing the number of options to 8, just like in the TMUA; this would significantly reduce the possibility of guessing correctly. I agree that not having point deductions reduces psychological pressure.

The grade inflation thing got silly, done for political reasons to claim higher standards, and for the exam boards to compete for students. I remember my A levels, all JMB, and that was the hardest and known as such to a degree Manchester Uni at the time of the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses (yes the Hacienda still existed then..... what a horrible place) would lower their entry grade by one downwards to account for it.

There should be defined and standardised grades, a bit like JMC/ Kangarro/ JMO. Something like A* 5%, A-E all 15% bands, N 5%, U 15% or something like that. Then admissions tuturs and later employers know yr upon year what means what.

Sorry if not clear, but obviously my grad interview anecdote was about looking at Senior Olympiads as a marginal differentiator on CVs for a highly technical math heavy (and obscure) job.
My comment wasn't about Junior at all. And no pressure at all but just something that might demonstrate an actual interest in problem-solving math in a field of candidates with v.strong STEM & finance degrees.
Mind you if a candidate had a Gold in any Olympiad it would impress us, as we all understood what it meant, but I would have chat to understand their school's attitude to it, for context.
I'm not attempting to speak for all employers at all here either and my data is quite old.
I would second the comment that it does seem harder to differentiate as so many more top grades given out now, so I could believe more employers might look things like that.

Justabitawkward No problem mate. It's easy on here for people to interpret things wrong. I wasn't necessarily, I knew the context.

I too have made some assumptions on here in the past and have been quickly (and quite rightly) pulled up on them.

@Jonny234 agree* *that the higher age level competitions may well help carry some weight towards university applications when added to the grades achieved. But importantly also prepare them better for university level maths if that is the direction they want to take.

I am sorry if it seemed I was implying anything personal about putting pressure on kids. That was meant as a very general statement in cases where this might be the case, if it is at all. But that is me making assumptions and which are unsubstantiated and unproven!

@Justabitawkward I wasnt necessarily implying it was the be all and end all but it just helps show a little bit of differentiation. Certainly the later maths challenges will look even better on the CV.

The issue these days is grade inflation is so prevalant that how do you know one top candidate from another? Every little helps I suppose.

Agree on the career progression angle. It's all about getting to the next stage and ultimately to a position where you want to be. Then soft skills are very important.

I didn't put any pressure on my DD whatsoever. We had loads of time for prep over half term and did other things instead like visting the seaside and generally knocking around, I think she did a couple of questions one day. She landed where she should have done.

@Statistico Agree on all that. Like I've said before I think Kangaroo level probably coasts through it all too.

Btw, I have a dislike for pure maths in general, It's ok at A level but too boring at Uni with all the proofs.

@Jonny234 I would be very surprised if many employers would look at olympiad medals won when their potential candidate was 11 or 12. I think it would be a bit strange even to add it to a CV! You would think that is not very relevant that many years later. But also, what an awful pressure for kids to think that what they achieve or don't achieve at 11 is going to make an impact on their job prospectswhen they are 22+. Certainly, I achieved top grades at school and university and it has made very little to my career progression. The soft people skills are so much more important. I think school grades are a passport to university, university degree helps secure a good first job. But then, you are as good as whatever you do next. Almost after your first job, the school grades are just not important anymore. So definitely a junior maths olympiad would be of minor importance. Obviously this is just my perspective and I can't speak for all employers. But I do think putting too much emphasis on these things for kids is too much pressure and will be bad for their long term wellbeing and enjoyment of learning.

Frankly historically any kid even getting into the JMO (without extensive prep) ought to be expected to be on a pathway to breeze their GCSEs and A levels, just on natural ability alone.
I guess if schools/parents over-prepping then some candidates may no longer be quite in that group?
Imho there is a difference between someone very good at school maths who can be trained up to do even Olympiad level and someone who actually loves the math enough to train themselves up.

Four good friends who studied maths at Oxford (course starts very pure math, at least back in the day) really rate(d) the Olympiad processes as good training for their entrance stuff and course.

An age ago, I interviewed grads for city derivatives trading roles and I absolutely would have favoured Olympiads on any CV above boring A level results (which for those roles one would expected pretty much straight As any way), though even then I was aware enough to moderate any achievement by school.
And then we'd ask them things like the Monty Hall Doors problem and other such hoary fun math questions. Also some real world guesstimation questions to check they didn't live in their own head.

I did a pub quiz the other night including with a guy who I see once in a while and works for a London bank, a really smart guy. He was an Olympiad when he was younger, about my DD's age. He was one of these who's school didnt take the exam so sat it at another, got the top mark at that school but then said he didn't get awarded "best in school" because he wasn't at that school. I found it funny.

Anyway, I asked him if employers like him faced with CVs with top grades ever look for something else like Olympiads to differentiate between candidates. His take was certainly yes.

Admittedly this is only a sample of 1.

It does feel that the enjoyment of puzzles / challenging maths problems is a must-have at the Olympiad level. While I hear about the parental pressure aspect, it is hard to imagine how this may lead to positive long-term outcomes when it comes to top-level competitions (unless the “pressure” somehow fuels the interest and enjoyment from the subject). Or am I missing smth?

It is a shame that competing in these maths competitions seems so high stakes and linked to whether or not it will improve IGCSE and A level scores. I would think that these competitions are precisely for the type of student for which IGCSE and A level would provide very little challenge in order to achieve highly. It provides one avenue alternative, extra challenge for those students who may not be stretched by the normal curriculum. They will not count for much at all, getting an olympiad medal at age 10/11 but nice to have the recognition for the child at the time. My daughter just loves the challenge and does them for fun...really enjoys them and finds them satisfying. Conversely, she finds much of the school maths to date rather dull. So this is keeping her challenged and interested which I think should be the main point of them.

Thanks user149799568 its always good to hear your view.

I wasn't necessarily saying that schools do that but they could if they so wished. I agree with your other comments though, the prep is undoubtedly more of an extra curricular activity for those taking the exam for the reasons you provide.

There is admittedly an "indirect" nature of the UKMT exams. Most schools would probably prefer to spend time on directly relevant prep for GCSE/ A level as that's the metric that appears to matter most. The lack of learning enrichment however may have implications.

I actually studied math major, in fact it was all Maths Code G100 at a UK redbrick, about as mathsy as it gets. I would say a lot carries over from A level but then a lot is completely new. What most annoyed me is it soon gets very niche and almost irrelevant unless you want to specifically develop an academic career. Employers like the subject because it shows someone can think logically, but what you actually learn (and invariably very quickly forget) in most cases hasn't any direct application in the real world.

Ultimately I ended up accentuating maths with a broader masters and professional qualification. Undoubtedly tthe maths helped a lot but looking back it did need something else.

@Jonny234

Otherwise what a school could do is prepare specifically for the JMO, and not the JMC, knowing that whatever JMC mark their pupils achieve they are in the JMO anyway.

I think you overestimate how much preparation schools, even the ones whose students get the most outstanding results, do for these competitions. I am familiar with several and they generally do no more than give a (single) past JMC paper as math homework in the run up to that contest. These schools do facilitate some JMO prep but that is in lunchtime or afterschool clubs; even at WUS or SPS, only a minority of the boys will actually take the JMO and it is not justifiable to spend class time on this. That is not to say that students at these schools do not prepare extensively for these contests; many do, but they do it on their own time, not on the school's, and most do it with their parents or with tutors rather than with their school math teachers.

The reason that schools, even the top ones, do not spend much resource on these exams is something you alluded to in previous posts: these contests have little to do with senior school math. Being able to answer the last 10 problems on the JMC and, even more, knowing how to write complete solutions on the JMO does not help very much on the GCSE math exam, and spending time to get better at these things is a very inefficient way to improve GCSE math scores. I know one school, which regularly features in the top 10 nationally for GCSE results, whose math department is absolutely dismissive of the UKMT competitions. From their point of view, it is the "wrong kind of math", i.e., not the kind which will help their position in the GCSE or A Level tables. I do not think their attitude is that unusual among secondary schools.

You mentioned math majors in a previous post. Most of the people I know who studied math in university have said that it was a shock how different it is compared with the math they studied at secondary; they were expecting more of the same and had no idea what they were getting themselves into. When the UKMT write that they are trying to "[advance] the education of young people in mathematics", they are not talking about secondary school math, even when the contests are aimed at secondary school students.