Mathsaurus

The UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge is usually taken by students in Years 9, 10 and 11 in England and Wales, which corresponds to Years 10, 11 and 12 in Northern Ireland or S2, S3 and S4 in Scotland, but younger students can also take the challenge. Students in equivalent year groups around the world also take the Intermediate Maths Challenge. These year groups usually correspond to students aged between 13 and 16, but there is no lower limit on the age students can participate.

The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge is usually considered an ‘enrichment’ activity and schools often offer the competition to their more enthusiastic or high-performing students. A range of students can benefit from taking the challenge, and the earlier questions are always made to be more accessible so that it is not just the top students who will enjoy the Intermediate Maths Challenge!

The Intermediate Mathematical Challenge usually takes place at the end of January or the start of February. 

In 2025 the IMC will take place in the UK on Wednesday 29th January (students in other time zones may take the challenge the following day).

The UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge is marked automatically. Paper entries are passed through a machine that scans the papers and checks students multiple-choice answers so it is very important that students follow the instructions on the answer paper carefully and only enter one answer for each question. Students often keep a note of their answers on rough paper and enter their answers on the answer sheet at the end as it can be hard to erase answers fully if they want to change their answers. Students taking the challenge online do not have this problem of course where the marking is fully automated and answers are chosen on the screen.

The free Mathsaurus course ‘Get Ready for the Intermediate Maths Challenge’ contains many years of past Intermediate Maths Challenge questions, each with video hints and solutions to help you practise and prepare. Further past papers can be found at the page here along with all the past certificate boundaries.  They can also be found at the UKMT website here.

Yes! The page here explains how to qualify, and also about ‘discretionary entries’ for students who haven’t qualified automatically.

You can only take the IMC at a registered UKMT centre - see the video here for more advice about what you can do in this situation.

Yes! As well as the self-paced online courses, there are Zoom classes to prepare for the IMC running all year round. See the Live Classes section of the website for more info.