Junior maths challenge 2025

[scisso]

Does anyone know when the results and boundaries get announced? How was this year’s paper in comparison to previous years?

DD sat it and thought some of them were quite hard so had to guess them, but she hasn’t done much of the past papers so doesn’t have much to compare against.

any insights would be very much appreciated.

You have a very good point and I don't disagree!

My children also have the huge advantage of being taught by truly outstanding teachers, in small classes, where the behaviour is excellent, so the teachers can get on with teaching, rather than wasting learning time managing behaviour....

Which could be argued to be due to their school, which we can send them to as a result of our own educational achievement. While I went to a normal state school, DH also had an excellent independant education at a top selective school, which led him to Oxbridge... which his parents could afford because of their high flying jobs etc etc...

DD1 has clearly been gifted since around, perhaps even before, she was 2 years old. She has the academic scholarship at her school.

Hello all, it’s that time of the year again! Dd sat the JMO today - anyone else in the same boat?

Any DCs sitting the Kangaroo today? Couldn’t get much out of DS (who qualified with 101 in the JMC), but he seemed happy enough with what he’d done- especially as he’s Y5 and hasn’t really done much real prep other than a couple of JMC past papers.

It’s been useful to hear all about the Parallel website and various apps. We’re pretty low screen at home so DS has basically taught himself from books. In answer to the poster up thread asking how to encourage mathematical reasoning in a younger child- my answer to that is if they’re into it you won’t be able to stop them. Our family has zero interest or experience in this area but through sheer force of interest DS has just done it all himself really (obviously we took him to a library to get books… but beyond that…)

Anyway. Would love to hear how other DCs found the Kangaroo.

My yr8 DD sat the JMO today. She seemed to like the paper but prepped a bit for it unlike last yr and with the extra age has probably got better. Says she all but answered 4, got some traction on 1, and then didnt understand the last question.

I'm hoping she improves on last years Merit. It'll be interesting to see what other comments come forward from students/ parents about the difficulty in the next few days.

A fair few also did the Kangaroo, the consensus was it was a lot easier than the JMC itself. One girl who had guessed 7 on the JMC only guessed 1 on the Kangaroo. But like all these exams it's relative, easier exams just mean higher grade boundaries.

DD2 did kangeroo today.

Other than looking at last years kangeroo paper on Sunday she has done no prep at all. (I wouldnt expect her to either, shes has end of year exams all of last week, finally finishing yesterday, then kangeroo this morning)

Her opinion was it was harder than last years.

Her friends opinion was that it was easier than last years kangeroo paper.

DS sat the Kangaroo and the general consensus among his cohort was that it was easier than the JMC itself this year. Is it a similar turn around time to the JMC? DS is Y7 so this is our first experience of it.

DD thought Q3 was difficult, and spent quite a long time on Q6.

But all in all, she enjoyed the paper, and I’m very pleased she did!

I have not had a chance to look at the paper properly yet but DD did complete 5. She was not too sure about q6 as she only had 10 minutes and did not have time to do the question before writing it up. This is the first time that she was able to attempt all 6. However, this is not due to the paper becomes easier but because she got better with age, experience and practice.

DS sat kangaroo and said it was easy....and finished 20 minutes early. I don't take this as a good sign. But perhaps the paper was slightly easier this year? I never think it is good if he finishes something early. Makes me think he rushed and probably made mistakes along the way. But ah well it is just for fun anyway so not a big deal.

DS y8 sat Junior Kangaroo today.
No.prep other than his regular Parallel Academy.
Thought it "easy" and the 8 other sitters (mostly y8) at his 4-form entry state school agreed it was not harder than the JMC.
DS added "I've got at least 24/25, I finished with at least 10mins to spare and checked all my answers and changed one".
He often misses a mistake or two, but glad he felt he had done well.

DS10 sat JMO yesterday and said he thought it was considerably harder than last year. Answered three fully, and 3 very sketchily.

Good to know, helpful. Like I said my DD prepped more and had an extra year vs last so it seemed hard for her to gauge difficulty. I think she'll have a firmer view when she sees the solutions.

Had a chat with her in a bit more detail yesterday evening and she's thinking at least high 20s worst worst case. Hopefully the extra difficulty can bring the distinction threshold down to around this level.

She isn't going to enjoy the weeks of waiting to find out her result. Last yr around late June her teacher was away on a school trip, and then she was away on another trip, so it'll probably be first week of July before she finds out.

Thanks for sharing this - love it!

I should not have posted photo as submission deadline is still live.
I've reported so Mumsnet can remove as one can no longer delete posts.
Apologies all

No worries at all, sensible decision to take it down. I just loved the way he showed his answers like a Christmas tree - it’s something my eldest would have done at that age.

I've rotated it 90 degrees, it was like an up down line graph

Solutions for the Kangaroo and JMO are out:

https://ukmt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Junior_Kangaroo_Solutions_2026-1.pdf

https://ukmt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/JMO_Solutions_2026-2.pdf

Thresholds for Junior Kangaroo are out as of 5pm. Ergo all entries have been marked.
Astonishingly quick, 2 days after deadline!
I hope school gives them out tomorrow as DS convinced he's aced it
ukmt.org.uk/junior-challenges/junior-kangaroo-awards

Amazing. Good luck to your DS!

My DD had a look at the solutions and after her initial optimism post exam its been dampened a fair bit. She thinks she has at least 2 full solutions but after that it's a bit hit and miss. Looks like she'll probably end up with a merit like last year.

She seemed a little disappointed but I think just taking the exam is great for her, something most kids will never experience.

School confirm DS got 135/135 in the Junior Kangaroo!
Nice way to finish his last time (being y8)
I'm just pleased he has learned to check his answers as he told me he did and changed one.

wow, well-done to your DS.

My dc took olympiad this year and thought it was harder than last years paper which theyd looked at to try and get a sense of what questions are like. They've never done anything like it before and his school didn't know much about it either so no help to prepare was on offer.
DC managed to answer 4 questions and part of a 5th but was only really confident of 3 of the solutions and to be honest has no idea if how they presented their answers was the style the markers look for. Will be really interested to see how they do as really haven't a clue whether they are likely to score 5, or 35!

Does anyone know how long it usually takes for results to be released?

JMO scripts are being marked this weekend so it should be available next week or the week after. Last year, results were sent out on 30/6.