Competitions · Mathematics · BmMT
BmMT, the Berkeley mini Math Tournament.
The junior half of Berkeley’s tournament, sat in teams of five by middle-school students. Each member’s own paper is worth exactly six per cent of the team score - which means bringing a less experienced fifth student costs far less than most families assume.
At a glance
What the tournament is, and who can enter.
Berkeley runs its tournament at two levels: BMT for high-school students and BmMT for middle school. Both have run since 2012, with over 500 entrants in the senior event and around 350 in this one each year.
- Organiser
- A student society at the University of California, Berkeley
- Who can enter
- In the China region, middle-school students in grades 7 to 9. In the US region, students at American schools in grade 8 and below
- Team size
- Five students. In the China region teams may mix year groups
- Difficulty
- Broadly comparable to MATHCOUNTS and AMC 8 - demanding but reachable for a well-prepared middle-school student
- Scale
- Around a hundred well-known American middle schools take part each year
- Language
- English, with a Chinese translation of the questions provided in the China region
- Same as the US
- The same papers, the same rules, and one global ranking that merges the American and Chinese results
- China region
- Two days in late May, held in Beijing
- US region
- A Sunday in April, with a separate online sitting in June
- Equipment
- Protractors and compasses are allowed. Graph paper and calculators are not. Scratch paper is provided
Scoring
Where the hundred per cent comes from.
This is the table to read before choosing a team. One round is worth more than all five individual papers put together.
| Round | Type | Format | Share of the team score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Round | Team | 20 questions, 60 minutes | 40% |
| Individual Round | Individual | 20 questions, 60 minutes | 30% — 6% per member |
| Puzzle Round | Team | 75 minutes, including 15 minutes of reading time | 20% |
| Relay Round | Team | 20 questions, 40 minutes | 10% |
| Tiebreaker | Individual | 3 questions, 15 minutes | Does not count toward the team |
Seventy per cent of a team result comes from three collaborative rounds. The individual paper matters, but no single student can carry a team here and no single student can sink one.
Building a team
What six per cent a head actually means.
The weighting changes the arithmetic of who to bring, and it is the most practically useful thing to understand about this tournament.
A weaker fifth member costs little
Each member contributes at most 6% of the team total. A student who scores half what the others do costs the team three percentage points - far less than leaving the place empty or than most families expect.
The Team Round is where teams are made
At 40%, the team paper outweighs all five individual scores combined. A squad that has practised working through twenty questions together will beat one that has not, regardless of individual standing.
Mixed year groups are allowed
In the China region a team may span year groups, so a strong grade 7 student can sit alongside grade 9 teammates. That widens who can realistically be assembled into a full five.
The relay is the smallest prize
At 10% the relay is worth least, but it is also the round where an early error propagates. It is worth practising precisely because the marks are hard to recover elsewhere.
The unusual rounds
Two rounds that are not ordinary papers.
The Puzzle and Relay rounds together are worth 30% - the same as every individual paper combined - and neither behaves like a normal question set.
The Puzzle Round gives you time to read
Seventy-five minutes, of which the first fifteen are reading time. Building a reading period into the round tells you the material is meant to be understood before it is attempted.
Reading is the round’s real skill
A round that opens with reading rewards students who can absorb an unfamiliar setup and find the structure in it - closer to how mathematics is actually done than a timed question sprint.
The Relay chains its answers
Twenty questions in forty minutes, interlocking so that one member must finish before the next can begin. The order of the chain matters as much as the mathematics in it.
The Tiebreaker is decided on the clock
Three questions in fifteen minutes for the strongest individual scorers, ranked by when a correct answer was submitted. Only the last submission is judged, and the result never touches the team score.
Awards
Individual and team, four bands each.
Both ladders run to the top half of the field, so a competent showing comes away with something. The three team rounds are also awarded separately from the overall team total.
| Band | Individual | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Top 10 | By individual score | By team score |
| Gold | Top 10% | Top 10% of teams |
| Silver | Top 20% | Top 20% of teams |
| Bronze | Top 30% | Top 30% of teams |
| Merit | Top 50% | Top 50% of teams |
The organisers merge the American and Chinese results into a single global ranking, so a China-region placing is measured against the whole field rather than a local one.
The China weekend
How the two days run.
The China region spreads the rounds across a Saturday and Sunday, with two social sessions between them.
Check-in
Teams arrive and register the evening before anything is sat.
Opening, then the Puzzle Round
The opening ceremony, then the 75-minute puzzle round with its reading period.
Individual and Team rounds
The individual paper, then the team round - the single most valuable hour of the weekend.
Tiebreaker and Math Social
The tiebreaker for selected students, then an informal evening event.
Relay Round
Forty minutes to finish the scored rounds, followed by a second social session.
Closing and awards
The closing ceremony and prize giving before teams depart.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a BmMT team.
The mathematics sits near MATHCOUNTS and AMC 8. What decides the result is how five students work as one.
Twenty questions, five people, one hour
The team round is 40% of everything and rewards a division of labour that has been rehearsed. Teams practise splitting a paper and reconvening rather than working the same questions in parallel.
Using the reading period
Fifteen minutes of reading is easy to waste. Students practise extracting the structure of an unfamiliar setup within a fixed window before touching a question.
Relay order
The chain rewards the steadiest member first rather than the fastest, since an early error costs everything downstream. That order is settled in practice, not on the day.
Compasses and protractors, no graph paper
Geometry can be constructed but not plotted on a grid. Students who have prepared with graph paper need to adjust before arriving.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for BmMT at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for BmMT is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past papers and preparation pack
The same material our own BmMT students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFPast papers, every year the organiser has released
- PDFWorked solutions, where the organiser publishes them
- PDFThe syllabus on one page - every topic, and how heavily it is examined
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Dr Zhang
PhD in theoretical mathematics from the University of Rochester and a postdoctoral fellow at the Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences at Fudan. An AMC-accredited coach, ASDAN-accredited for DMM and ITCCC, and an accredited UKMT BMO2 and PUMaC coach. His students have gone on to read mathematics and physics at Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Caltech and Cambridge.
Dr Zhuang
PhD in mathematics from the University of Denver, working in mathematical logic, after a first degree in applied mathematics at Southeast University. A repeat conference speaker on his research, with three years lecturing and assisting on undergraduate mathematics at Denver.
He
A Cambridge master's after a computer science degree with a mathematics minor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a US high school GPA of 4.13. Six years overseas and teaches entirely in English, across AMC, Math League, AP Computer Science and AP Calculus.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for BmMT, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
BmMT, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering a team.
Who can enter BmMT?
In the China region, middle-school students in grades 7 to 9, in teams of five that may mix year groups. In the US region, students at American schools in grade 8 and below.
How is BmMT different from BMT?
BMT is the senior tournament for high-school students; BmMT is the middle-school one. Both are run by the same Berkeley student society and have run since 2012.
How difficult is it?
Broadly comparable to MATHCOUNTS and AMC 8 - demanding, but reachable for a prepared middle-school student rather than an olympiad-level paper.
How is the team score calculated?
The team round is 40%, the puzzle round 20% and the relay 10%. The individual round supplies the remaining 30%, at 6% per team member.
Does a weaker team member hurt much?
Less than most people expect. Each member contributes at most 6% of the team total, so a student scoring half what their teammates do costs about three percentage points.
Is the paper in English?
Yes, and in the China region a Chinese translation of the questions is provided alongside it.
What can I bring?
Protractors and compasses are permitted. Graph paper and calculators are not. Scratch paper is handed out by the organisers, and submitted answers must be clear and simplified.
How does the tiebreaker work?
Three questions in fifteen minutes for the strongest individual scorers, ranked by the time a correct answer was submitted. Only the final submission is judged, and the round does not affect the team score.
Related
The senior tournament, and contests at this level.
Where BmMT sits, and what students sit alongside it.
BmMT enquiries
Fill the fifth place. It costs less than leaving it empty.
Each member is worth six per cent and the collaborative rounds are worth seventy. Tell us how many students you have and their year groups, and an advisor will map the May entry and help complete the team.