Challenges

Solo Challenges

Junior

Intermediate

Senior

Olympiad mentoring Scheme

Training for international competitions

Team competitions

UK Maths Challenge

Learn more about the range of UK maths challenges that children can take part in, including the junior, intermediate and senior maths challenges.

What is a UK Maths Challenge?

A maths challenge could be referring to a plethora of different challenges and competitions held across the UK for maths pupils across many ages.

The United Kingdom Mathematics Trust are one of the main providers of UK Maths Challenges and they operate both as a company and a registered charity in England and Wales.

The UKMT offer their main Junior, Senior and Intermediate Maths challenges and are seen as the UK’s most popular school maths competitions.

They also offer further opportunities for high achieving pupils, with the senior challenge seeding pupils into the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1. If successful then pupils can progress further onto the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad. The Olympiad is seen as the annual Olympic Games in the world of Mathematics and International competition.

The UKMT Junior Maths Challenge

The UKMT Junior Maths Challenge will be held from Wednesday 27th of April to Thursday 28 April in 2022. This Junior competition or challenge is available for pupils who are in Year 8 or below for England and Wales, pupils in S2 and below for Scotland and pupils in Year 9 or below in Northern Ireland.

The format of the Junior Maths Challenge is a challenge paper that pupils and students will be allowed 60 minutes to fill out. The paper is a multiple-choice style challenge which promotes the love of problem-solving and it’s aimed at students in the UK.

The challenge has children utilise their mathematical reasoning and fluency in using the basic mathematical techniques learned from school to solve unique and interesting questions and challenges on the paper.

The problems on the Junior Mathematical Challenge promote critical thinking skills, often making pupils apply their knowledge in unfamiliar ways in order to solve a problem. Most questions are accessible to all pupils, while still remaining a challenge for more experienced pupils.

According to the UKMT: “The competition is aimed at students in schools and colleges based in the UK. Entries must be made by registered UKMT centres, not private tutors, individual students or their parents.”

How can children participate in the Junior Mathematical Challenge?

The group offer physical papers to purchase on their website as well as online logins to access the challenge electronically, which is necessary for overseas pupils wishing to take part. Of course, it’s also helpful due to Covid-related restrictions. Results for the challenge as well as downloadable certificates are available online. Follow-on rounds are sat online too.

Pupils can be entered into the competition online by paying the entry fee as long as the above criteria are met and you are from a registered UKMT centre. You will be sent online logins for your students, physical papers or a combination of both, depending on your order. Pupils are to sit the paper in exam conditions as they would their school assessments so long as Covid restrictions can permit it.

What are the prizes for for the Junior Mathematical Challenge?

The UKMT award the top-scoring 40% of participants in the challenge Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates in the ratio 3:2:1 to recognise high achievement and hard work. Around 2000 of the very highest performers in the challenge are invited to take part in the Junior Olympiad and over 10,000 are invited to take part in the Junior Kangaroo challenge which is a follow-on challenge.

Teachers can use past Junior Mathematical Challenge papers in order to get their pupils used to the style of questions, the exam conditions and the challenge in general. You could even run your own mock challenge. This is a great way to help children prepare for the challenge, so that they don’t feel daunted by it when they sit down to take it.

You can also have a look at some of our amazing challenge resources on the Twinkl website to get your KS3 children used to fun problem-solving questions.

The UKMT does not make a profit from entry fees as they are a charity who spend all the money raised on advancing the education of young people in mathematics.

The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge

The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge will be held from Wednesday 2nd February to Thursday 3rd February in 2022. This Intermediate competition or challenge is available for pupils who are in year 11 or below for England and Wales, pupils in S4 and below for Scotland and pupils in year 12 or below in Northern Ireland.

Much like the Junior variant of the challenge, it consists of a multiple-choice question paper lasting 60 minutes long to be taken by pupils across the UK and in some cases beyond. The challenge is identical in scope and provision to the Junior challenge but is aimed at older pupils in general with more difficult questions compared to those found in the Junior one.

What are the prizes for the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge?

Participants are awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates in the same 3:2:1 ratio mentioned for the Junior challenge. 1500 of the highest performers are then invited to take part in one of the follow-up Olympiads, the Cayley, Hamilton or Maclaurin Olympiad dependent on the pupil’s year group. A huge number of other pupils are invited to take part in the Grey or Pink Kangaroo competitions.

The Intermediate Maths Challenge is a great opportunity for pupils to showcase their maths knowledge. Even if children are not confident with their maths abilities, the challenge can be stimulating and encourage them to learn more. It’s also a great way of checking where they’re currently at in terms of their maths understanding.

Read more about it on our Intermediate Maths Challenge.

The UKMT Senior Maths Challenge

The UKMT Senior Maths Challenge will be held from Wednesday 10nd November to Thursday 11th November in 2021. This Senior competition or challenge is available for students who are in Year 13 or below for England and Wales, pupils in S6 and below for Scotland and pupils in Year 14 or below in Northern Ireland.

Again, the challenge is very similar to the prior two challenges with a few differences and exceptions. The Senior Mathematical Challenge is still a multiple choice paper, but students are given another 30 minutes compared to the Intermediate Maths Challenge(90 minutes altogether) to complete.

The top 60% of participants in the Senior Maths Challenge are also awarded certificates of Bronze, Silver and Gold ranking in the same 3:2:1 ratio. After completion, much like in previous challenges, around 1000 of the very highest performing students for the Senior Challenge are invited to take part in the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1. Around 6000 pupils will also be invited to take part in the follow-up challenge Senior Kangaroo which is mainly based online with the option to request physical papers.

The British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1

The British Mathematical Olympiad is available for students who are in Year 13 or below for England and Wales, pupils in S6 and below for Scotland and pupils in Year 14 or below in Northern Ireland. It acts as a follow-on round for high achieving students taking part in the Senior Mathematical Challenge and is an entry point for students to be seeded into a selection programme for the international variant of the Olympiad among other international competitions.

According to the UKMT: “BMO1 2020 is a 2.5-hour Challenge consisting of 2 sections; section A has 4 ‘answer only’ questions, with partial marks awarded and section B has 3 questions requiring full written solutions”.

How can children practise for the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1?

Sample papers are available on the UKMT website to download. Pupils who did not take part in the Senior Maths Challenge or who did not reach the qualifying threshold to be invited may still be entered into the Olympiad at the discretion of their school.

After round 1 of the Olympiad, the top quartile of scoring entries will receive a Certificate of Distinction for their hard work, with the next 45% of students who enter receiving a Certificate of Merit. Around 100 of the top scorers from this round will be able to go on to sit the second round of the Olympiad.

The British Mathematical Olympiad Round 2

The British Mathematical Olympiad Round 2 is available for students who are invited to take the paper following on from the prior round. It challenges the highest scorers from the previous round of the Olympiad while acknowledging and bringing to light students who would wish to begin training for international competitions such as the International Mathematical Olympiad. Again, the challenge is open to those eligible and those entered at the discretion of their schools.

The International Mathematical Olympiad

According to their website: “The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students and is held annually in a different country.

“The first IMO was held in 1959 in Romania, with 7 countries participating. It has gradually expanded to over 100 countries from 5 continents.

“The IMO Board ensures that the competition takes place each year and that each host country observes the regulations and traditions of the IMO.”

The IMO is supported by the IMO Foundation, a charity whose website acts as the public face of the IMO.

Olympiad Training and Selection

The UKMT state that they: “Organize training camps to select and prepare students for participation in international competitions such as the Romanian Master of Mathematics, the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad, the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad and the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).”

They offer mentoring schemes at many levels to help pupils who wish to enter these competitions and challenges. They also offer a variety of different training camps for these pupils, which is detailed further on the UKMT website.

The Primary Mathematics Challenge

The Primary Mathematics Challenge is completely independent of both the IMO and UKMT, and act as a charity themselves offering a maths challenge for pupils who are in primary school. You can find out all about this Primary Maths Challenge here.

Source : What is the UK Maths Challenge? Teaching Wiki (twinkl.co.uk)