UKMT Discretionary Entries for Kangaroo + Olympiad rounds
If you take the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge, Intermediate Maths Challenge or Senior Maths Challenge and do well enough you may qualify for one of the follow on rounds, but did you know that you can take the follow on rounds even if you didn’t qualify automatically?
What follow on rounds are there for UKMT Maths Challenges?
There are two types of follow on rounds for each competition:
Kangaroo: The Kangaroo rounds are similar to the first rounds but harder – they have multiple choice questions and are marked automatically in the same way as for the first rounds.
Olympiads: The Olympiad rounds are a big step up from the other challenges and require students to answer longer questions with full written solutions. Most questions have 10 marks each and are some of the most challenging problems for students in each age group. Most students score very few marks on this round and Merits can often be achieved for scores as low as 25%. There are medals available for the top performing students and the Senior competitions feed into selection for national maths teams.
How can I qualify for the Kangaroo and Olympiad follow-on rounds for the UKMT Junior, Intermediate and Senior Maths Challenges?
Students can qualify automatically for the follow-on rounds by meeting the relevant boundary from the first round. At the same time the results for Gold/Silver/Bronze certificates are announced, UKMT also sets thresholds for qualification to the follow on rounds.
Junior: Top 1000-1200 are invited to Olympiad, another 10,000 to the Kangaroo
Intermediate: Top 1500 (approx.) are invited to Cayley (Year 9), Hamilton (Year 10) or Maclaurin (Year 11) Olympiad rounds and another 8,000 to the Grey (Year 9) or Pink (Years 10+11) Kangaroos
Senior: 1,000 (approx.) are invited to the Olympiad (BMO Round 1) and another 6,000 (approx.) to to the Kangaroo
In this case, the centre that entered you should be in touch directly to make arrangements, but do check with them if you’re not sure. As the challenges require staff to invigilate, organising the follow on rounds can be difficult for smaller centres, so you may need to find a willing teacher to arrange this, especially for the Olympiad rounds which require 2 hours (for Junior and Intermediate) or 3.5 hour (Senior).
Can I still enter if I don’t qualify automatically?
Yes, it is possible for any student to make a discretionary entry. UKMT centres are allowed to enter additional candidates for the follow on rounds for a fee. At the time of writing the fee for the Junior Kangaroo is £4 and for the Junior Olympiad is £25 and similar fees apply for other levels. Like with the first rounds, entries are only open to UKMT centres (see here for advice for private and home-schooled candidates).
There is no set boundary for discretionary entries and they are not limited to `near-miss’ candidates. Any student can enter via this route, including students who were not able to take the first round.
The school\centre must make the entry, so contact your school not the UKMT if you would like to enter. The competitions, especially the Olympiads, are very challenging, so schools may put off some students or suggest they take the Kangaroo instead of the Olympiad. But in most cases, if the school are already entering candidates and you are willing to pay the fee then most centres would allow keen students to enter. If the school doesn’t already have any Olympiad candidates do be aware that these are 2 hour exams and need to be invigilated by a member of staff so you may need to ask very nicely!
Students who make discretionary entires are eligible for all certificates and prizes, just like if they entered by qualifying.
I want to take the Kangaroo or Olympiad buy my school has said no – what can I do?
It’s great when students are keen to take a follow-on round and want to push themselves. Discretionary entry exists exactly for this kind of student, and the UKMT’s own guidance is clear that any student can be entered this way, not just near-miss qualifiers.
The practical reality is that all entries go through a UKMT-registered centre, which is usually your/your child’s school. The centre has full discretion over whether to enter discretionary candidates, and there is no obligation on them to do so. Junior Olympiad papers need around two hours of invigilation outside the normal timetable and the Senior ones 3.5 hours, plus a bit of admin to process the entry and return the script, so it is understandable that some schools choose to enter automatic qualifiers only.
If you want to ask your school, here is what we’d suggest:
1. Send a short, polite email. Mention that your child has been preparing specifically for the follow-on round and would value the chance to sit the real paper.
2. Offer to pay the entry fee directly. This is usually a small amount (£4 for Kangaroo, £25 for Olympiad) and removing the cost from the school’s side often helps.
If the school says no, whether that is because they aren’t running the round at all this year or because they’re entering some students but not willing to add extras, your may be able to approach a different UKMT entry centre. Some nearby schools, sixth form colleges, and tuition centres take external discretionary entries for a small admin fee. Some may only be willing to enter their own students, but the best first step is to try to find the member of staff responsible for UKMT entires and to contact them directly.
If all else fails, the papers are published soon after the competitions take place, and students can still get most of the benefit of the challenges by preparing them and sitting them in their own time. The Kangaroos are all multiple-choice or answer-only so it is very easy for a parent to mark these from the official mark-scheme and to see if they would meet the certificate thresholds. The Olympiad papers require full answers and are more challenging to mark but students cans still gain a lot from comparing their answers to the official solutions.
How can I prepare for the follow-on rounds
If you’re taking one of the follow-on rounds, Mathsaurus has lots of courses and other resources to help. Choose the competition you are preparing for from the menus at the top of the page (sorted by age-group).