A parent’s guide
The Intermediate Maths Challenge
One hour, 25 questions, and the way into the Olympiad.
By Marcus Smith · Updated
At a glance
- Date
- Wednesday 27 January 2027
- Who can sit it
- Year 11 and below (S4 or below in Scotland, Year 12 or below in Northern Ireland)
- The paper
- 60 minutes, 25 multiple-choice questions, no calculator
- Marks
- 135 in total
- Run by
- The UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT), through schools
- Next round
- Olympiads and Kangaroos on Thursday 18 March 2027, by invitation
Dates and rules checked on ukmt.org.uk on 2 November 2026.
What is the Intermediate Maths Challenge?
The Intermediate Maths Challenge (IMC) is a one-hour, 25-question multiple-choice paper set each year by the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT), a maths charity. Students sit it at school.
It is the middle of UKMT’s three Challenges: Junior, Intermediate and Senior.
UKMT describes the questions as mostly accessible, with harder ones that stretch experienced students. They run in rough order of difficulty, hardest last.
When is the Intermediate Maths Challenge 2027?
The Intermediate Maths Challenge 2027 is on Wednesday 27 January 2027, at school.
Schools order printed papers by Wednesday 6 January 2027, or download and print them up to the day itself.
Not sure your child’s school takes part? Ask the maths department before the Christmas holidays.
The follow-on Olympiad and Kangaroo rounds are on Thursday 18 March 2027.
Who can take the Intermediate Maths Challenge?
Any student in Year 11 or below in England and Wales, S4 or below in Scotland, or Year 12 or below in Northern Ireland.
Year 8 and below also have their own paper, the Junior Maths Challenge, on Wednesday 5 May 2027. A strong Year 8 can enter the Intermediate early.
Entry is through schools. UKMT says home-educated children can take part through a nearby school registered with UKMT, at that school’s discretion.
How is the Intermediate Maths Challenge marked?
Out of 135. Questions 1 to 15 are worth 5 marks each and questions 16 to 25 are worth 6, but a wrong answer on the last ten loses marks.
| Questions | Right | Wrong | Left blank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 15 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 to 20 | 6 | minus 1 | 0 |
| 21 to 25 | 6 | minus 2 | 0 |
Calculators are not allowed. Rough paper is.
Twenty-five questions in 60 minutes is under two and a half minutes each. UKMT tells students not to expect to finish.
What score do you need for Gold?
It changes every year. In 2026, Gold needed 61 out of 135, Silver 46 and Bronze 35.
UKMT sets the scores after marking. The top half of entrants win a certificate, in the ratio 3 Bronze to 2 Silver to 1 Gold, so Gold goes to about the top 8%.
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 61 | 46 | 35 |
| 2025 | 72 | 52 | 37 |
| 2024 | 77 | 61 | 47 |
| 2023 | 71 | 55 | 42 |
| 2022 | 81 | 65 | 50 |
Results go to schools, not families. Ask the school for your child’s score; certificates follow shortly after.
What happens after the IMC?
The top scorers are invited to a follow-on round on Thursday 18 March 2027: an Olympiad for the very highest scorers, a Kangaroo for the next group.
| Round | School year | The paper | 2026 score needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cayley Olympiad | Year 9 and below | 2 hours, 6 written problems | 86 |
| Hamilton Olympiad | Year 10 | 2 hours, 6 written problems | 93 |
| Maclaurin Olympiad | Year 11 | 2 hours, 6 written problems | 98 |
| Grey Kangaroo | Year 9 and below | 1 hour, 25 multiple choice | 61 |
| Pink Kangaroo | Years 10 and 11 | 1 hour, 25 multiple choice | 66 |
Around the top 500 scorers in each Olympiad’s year band are invited. Several thousand more are invited to a Kangaroo.
Schools can also buy a discretionary entry for a student who did not qualify.
Every Olympiad answer is a full written solution. UKMT says a correct answer on its own earns very few marks.
One more door: UKMT invites students at random from the top 1.5% of Intermediate Challenge scores in Years 10 and 11 to its week-long National Mathematics Summer School.
Where it leads from there: the UK maths olympiad route.
How should my child prepare for the IMC?
With UKMT’s own past papers. Sit one in 60 minutes without a calculator, then go through every question missed or skipped using UKMT’s solutions.
UKMT publishes past Intermediate papers and solutions free: UKMT past papers.
Practise the pace as well as the maths. The first 15 questions reward steady care, the last ten carry the most marks, and a question that stalls is worth leaving and coming back to.
Gold is built over months of problem solving, not in the week before.
Maths Mastery Academy
Gold in January. The Olympiad in March.
Multiple choice ends at the Challenge. The Olympiad wants full written solutions, and almost no school teaches that.
We do, every week, in ability-matched classes of about four.
90%
of our students earn Gold in UK Maths Challenges. The national rate is 8%.
Top 20
In the 2026 Cayley Olympiad, one of our students finished in the country’s top 20.
Places are confirmed by interview.
Sources
Every date, rule and score here is from UKMT’s own pages, checked on .