What are the age divisions?
The competition has five age divisions:
- Middle Primary (Grades 4 and 5)
- Upper Primary (Grades 6 and 7)
- Junior Secondary (Grades 8 and 9)
- Senior Secondary (Grades 10-12)
- Undergraduate (First 3 years of post-secondary study)
Notably you are considered to be in grade (n+1) if you will have completed grade n by the final round of the competition. This rule becomes relevant for countries whose school system runs on a northern (September to May) school calendar. The learners should write in the age division corresponding to the grade they’ll be in September. It also applies to learners taking a gap year. For example, a student taking a gap year between school and university would need to enter the undergraduate competition and would not be eligible for the senior secondary division.
I’m a teacher, how do I enter my school?
Simply go to the main page on this website and click “Register your school”.
What is the cost of entry per learner?
There is no entry fee to the competition. You’re welcome to enter your entire school for free should you wish to.
OK great, how do I register my learners?
You don’t need to register your individual learners. You just need to submit your learners’ answers before the end of the qualifying round.
I’m not a teacher but I run a group which does some kind of maths training. Can I enter my learners?
Yes, provided they’re not at schools/universities which have registered. Those learners/students should write with the school/university if possible. You will not be eligible for school prizes, but in exceptional cases we may award special prizes for particularly well performing groups (this is entirely at the organisers’ discretion).
How are school prizes calculated?
Learners/students are ranked. The ranks of the top 5 learners per school per division are summed and the winning school is the school with the lowest total summed rank. Unfortunately, this makes schools that enter four or less competitors in a single division ineligible for team prizes. The individual competitors are however eligible for individual prizes.
How do learners actually write?
Due to the Covid pandemic learners may write remotely online. Teachers will set a time in the qualifying round week for their learners to write and send them a link. Outside pandemic-times students write the qualifying round at school and the organising teacher submits a spreadsheet of learner answers. This may be created manually or can be computerised by using our computer readable answer cards.
I’m a learner/student. How do I register?
Learners/students who’re competing don’t register with us. They register with the local organiser at their school/university. If your school has registered, you can find the name of the organising teacher on the “registered schools” page of this website.
My school isn’t registered. Can I still compete?
Yes. The best option is to have your teacher register your
school (and we strongly encourage you to encourage them to register). If they
refuse, you can have your parent/guardian register you as a home-school and
compete like this (actual home-schools may of course enter similarly).
It should be stressed that if your school is registered, you
should write with the school.
I’m not in grade 4 yet (grade 3 or younger) but I want to write. Can I?
While this is generally discouraged, it’s permitted at the local organisers’ discretion. A useful benchmark in such situations is to see how you do on the past papers.