Competitions · Mathematics · JHMT
JHMT, the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament.
A two-day team event in August, written and run by Johns Hopkins undergraduates and held in Shanghai for the China region. Teams are four students, and the relay round gives twelve minutes for four questions in which each answer becomes the next question’s starting condition.
At a glance
What the tournament is, and who can enter.
JHMT has run for more than twenty years, organised by undergraduates of the Johns Hopkins mathematics department. Johns Hopkins was founded in 1876 as America’s first research university and is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities.
- Organiser
- Johns Hopkins University students, through the mathematics department. The problems are written by undergraduates reading mathematics, physics, computer science and statistics
- Two divisions
- A high-school group and a middle-school group, judged entirely separately
- Team size
- Four students
- Language
- English for the high-school group. The middle-school group runs in both Chinese and English
- When and where
- A weekend in mid-August, held in Shanghai for the China region
- Rounds
- Three scored rounds - individual, a team round, and a relay - plus unscored events on the second day
- What it is for
- The organisers describe the aim as making mathematics enjoyable and giving entrants a taste of what current mathematical research is actually like
- What it is not for
- Results carry no weight in Chinese school admissions or evaluation. The event is positioned as an extracurricular interest activity and a route into international mathematics exchange
- Registration
- Closes about ten days before the tournament
The scored rounds
Where the two divisions differ.
Both groups sit the same individual and relay rounds. The middle round is the only structural difference between them - and it is a significant one.
| Round | Middle school | High school |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | Fill-in, 90 minutes, worked alone | Fill-in, 90 minutes, worked alone |
| Team round | Theme Round - fill-in questions on one theme, 60 minutes | Power Round - proof questions, 60 minutes |
| Relay | Four papers of four questions, twelve minutes each | Four papers of four questions, twelve minutes each |
The high-school Power Round asks for written proofs while the middle-school Theme Round asks for answers. A student moving up between the divisions meets proof writing for the first time here.
The relay
Four questions, twelve minutes, each one locked to the last.
The relay is the round that decides most JHMT results, and the one teams consistently underestimate.
Every answer is the next condition
Each question uses the previous answer as an input, so the four are a single chain rather than four separate problems. One wrong value early does not cost one question - it costs everything after it.
Three minutes a question, on average
Twelve minutes for four linked questions leaves almost no slack. There is no time to verify a result properly, so the team has to decide how much checking it can afford as it goes.
Order matters more than ability
Because errors propagate forward, the student least likely to slip belongs at the front of the chain rather than the fastest one. Four teams of equal strength can score very differently on this alone.
Four papers, four chances
The round runs four times. A chain that breaks on the first paper is recoverable, which makes recognising a broken chain quickly - and resetting - a practical skill worth rehearsing.
The weekend
What happens either side of the papers.
JHMT is built as a two-day event rather than a morning of examinations, and roughly half of it carries no marks at all.
Day one is the scored day
Check-in and the opening ceremony, then the team round before lunch, the relay in the early afternoon and the individual paper after it. All three scored rounds sit inside a single day.
Social Night
The evening of the first day is given over to an informal social event. For most entrants it is the first time meeting students from other schools working at the same level.
Estimathon and lectures
The second morning runs a buzzer round, talks, and an Estimathon - an estimation contest where the skill is judging magnitude rather than calculating exactly. None of it counts toward the standings.
Closing on day two
The tournament finishes with the closing ceremony and awards in the early afternoon of the second day, after which teams depart.
Awards
Each round is awarded on its own.
This is the most useful thing to understand about JHMT scoring: the three rounds are awarded separately, so a student strong in one area has three independent chances at a medal.
| Award | Basis | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Top three nationally | Per round | First, second and third |
| Gold | Per round | Top 10% |
| Silver | Per round | Top 25% |
| Bronze | Per round | Top 40% |
| Team top three | Combined team total | First, second and third nationally |
The middle-school and high-school groups are judged separately throughout, so a younger team is never ranked against an older field.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a JHMT team.
With only four students on a team and three separately awarded rounds, who does what matters more here than at most tournaments.
Building a chain, not a roster
The relay rewards reliability over speed, and rewards a settled order. Teams practise the relay as a unit until the sequence is automatic, because it cannot be worked out on the day.
Proof writing for the high-school group
The Power Round is the one place high-school entrants must write an argument rather than an answer. Students moving up from the middle-school division prepare for it specifically.
Three rounds, three targets
Because gold, silver and bronze are awarded per round at 10%, 25% and 40%, a realistic plan often targets a medal in the round a student is strongest at rather than an even effort across all three.
Estimation as a skill
The second-day Estimathon carries no marks but rewards a genuine skill - judging orders of magnitude quickly. It is worth arriving able to do it rather than meeting it cold.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for JHMT 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 JHMT 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 JHMT 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.
Student results
What Hanlin students got.
Taken from Hanlin's published record of student honours and rewritten in English. Figures are as the organisers reported them.
JHMT
- 2024Individually 2 Gold, one Silver and 2 merit awards, plus the highest-score award. In the team rounds, Gold in the theme, relay and general rounds alongside Silver and Bronze
The full record, across every subject and year, is on the student honours page.
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 JHMT, 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.
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JHMT, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering a team.
Who can enter JHMT?
Middle-school and high-school students, in teams of four. The two divisions are judged entirely separately, so a younger team is never ranked against an older field.
What language is the tournament in?
The high-school group runs in English. The middle-school group runs in both Chinese and English, which makes it a reasonable first international contest for a student still building confidence in English mathematics.
What are the three scored rounds?
A 90-minute individual paper, a 60-minute team round, and a relay of four papers at twelve minutes each. For middle school the team round is a fill-in Theme Round; for high school it is a proof-based Power Round.
How does the relay work?
Each paper has four questions in twelve minutes, and every answer becomes the next question’s starting condition. An error early in the chain invalidates everything after it, so the round rewards accuracy over speed.
How are awards decided?
Each round is awarded separately - gold to the top 10%, silver to the top 25% and bronze to the top 40%, plus the top three nationally in that round. There is also a team award for the top three on combined total.
Is there anything besides the papers?
Yes. The first evening is a social night, and the second morning runs a buzzer round, lectures and an Estimathon estimation contest. None of the second-day events affects the standings.
Does a JHMT result help with school admission in China?
No. The organisers state explicitly that results are not linked to Chinese school admission or evaluation. It is an extracurricular interest activity and an international mathematics exchange.
Can we get a refund if we withdraw?
Before the registration deadline, yes, with 25% of the fee retained for academic materials and service. After the deadline the fee is not refundable.
Related
Other university-run team tournaments.
What teams commonly enter alongside JHMT.
JHMT enquiries
The relay is won before anyone sits down.
Four linked questions in twelve minutes rewards a team that has settled its order and practised together. Tell us how many students you have and their year groups, and an advisor will map the August entry.