Mathematical Olympiad for Girls (MOG)

The MOG and MCG are primarily aimed at students in Years 11, 12 and 13 in England and Wales and equivalent year groups in other countries. (See the page here for a comparison of some international year groups). Like with all UKMT competitions, younger studnets may also be entered at the school’s discretion.

You can only enter these competitions via a UKMT centre – usually that means your school or college. Centres can enter up to 4 students for the MOG. Since the aim of the MOG is to be the start of a student’s journey to Olympiad problem solving, if a school makes 2 or 3 entries, then at least one should be from a non-final year student, and if a school makes 4 entries, then at least 2 should be from non-final year students.

An unlimited number of entries can be made to the MCG.

The MOG is a 2.5-hour paper with 5 questions. 2 of these questions are ‘answer-only’ and so do not require working to be given. 3 of the questions are full-answer questions, and like other Olympiad papers, credit will be given for the quality of written explanations, not just for the final answers.

The MCG is a 90-minute paper where all 5 questions are ‘answer-only’. The questions for the MCG and the MOG will be similar in style and level, and some questions will be shared between the two papers.

Schools are encouraged to enter their strongest candidates to the MOG, and this paper is closest to the other Olympiad papers, as several of its questions require full answers and it is a 2.5 hour paper instead of 90 minutes, so the MOG would be considered the senior of the two competitions. However, there is significant overlap between the content of the papers and both are prestigious competitions that will give girls the opportunity to showcase their mathematical abilities and to start a journey towards other Olympiad competitions.

No. Students may only enter one of these competitions. The competitions will run on the same day, and there will be significant overlap between the questions asked on the two papers.

Schools receive a certain number of free entries to these competitions, and additional entries can be made for a fee. It is up to individual schools whether they pass on these costs to students and how they allocate any free places they have available.

You can find a table with past MOG papers below. The MCG starts in 2025 and so there are currently no past papers available. However, the MCG questions will be similar in style and level to the MOG, and so the MOG papers would be an excellent starting point.

Past papers for the Junior and Intermediate Kangaroo and Olympiad competitions are also excellent starting points to prepare for these competitions. If you have time, starting with a few of the Junior papers is especially recommended for those new to Olympiads to get a sense of the style of Olympiad problems. Mathsaurus has free courses containing past papers for the Junior and Intermediate Kangaroo and Olympiad rounds with video hints and solutions to many of these papers. These can be found at the relevant pages in the age 11-13 and age 13-16 sections.

This video explains how the UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge fits within all of the other UK maths challenges, including typical certificate boundaries and how qualifying for and entering the follow-on Kangaroo and Olympiad rounds works.