Competitions · Mathematics · IJMO
IJMO, the International Junior Math Olympiad.
An invitational final you cannot enter directly: places go to silver and gold winners from the qualifying contests. Thirty questions in ninety minutes, marked from a starting score of twenty - and two of the three sections deduct marks for a wrong answer.
At a glance
What the olympiad is, and how you reach it.
IJMO is run by the Singapore International Math Contests Centre together with national mathematics societies across Asia, and is hosted by a different Asian country each year. Entry is by invitation from a qualifying contest, not by registration.
- Organiser
- SIMCC, in partnership with national mathematics societies across Asia
- Where
- A different Asian host country each year
- Who can enter
- Students in grades 2 to 11
- How to qualify
- A silver award or better at AMO, SASMO or another qualifying contest in the family. Bronze winners can qualify by completing the official IJMO training course
- When
- Late July
- Format
- 30 questions in three sections, sat online
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Marks
- 120, counted from a starting score of 20
- Difficulty
- Set harder than SIMOC, the other final in this family
- What else it opens
- Entrants are invited to the International Junior Informatics Olympiad and the International Junior Cybersecurity Olympiad
The mark scheme
Where the hundred and twenty marks come from.
Every candidate starts on 20 before answering anything. The three sections then behave differently enough that they need attempting differently.
| Section | Questions | Correct | Wrong | Unanswered | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A, questions 1-10 | 10 | +2 | −1 | 0 | 20 |
| B, questions 11-20 | 10 | +3 | −1 | 0 | 30 |
| C, questions 21-30 | 10 | +5 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Starting score | — | — | — | — | 20 |
The three sections plus the starting score account for the full 120. Section C is worth more than A and B combined, and it is also the only section where a wrong answer costs nothing.
Strategy
When a guess pays, section by section.
Because two sections deduct and one does not, the right approach changes as you move through the paper. The thresholds below follow directly from the mark scheme.
Section C: always answer
A correct answer is worth 5 and a wrong one costs nothing, so there is never a reason to leave a Section C question blank. This is also the most valuable section on the paper.
Section B: better than one in four
At +3 and −1, a guess breaks even at a one-in-four chance of being right. Ruling out enough options to beat that makes an attempt worthwhile.
Section A: better than one in three
At +2 and −1, the bar is higher - you need better than a one-in-three chance before guessing beats leaving it. The cheapest questions are the ones to be most careful about.
Which is the opposite of the usual advice
Most candidates guess more freely on easy questions and less on hard ones. Here the mark scheme asks for exactly the reverse, and that is worth rehearsing before the day.
Awards
Four bands, and a champion in every year group.
The bands are consecutive slices of the field rather than overlapping thresholds, so half the entrants take a medal.
| Award | Share of the field |
|---|---|
| Gold | Top 10% |
| Silver | The next 15% |
| Bronze | The next 25% |
| Merit and participation | All remaining entrants, according to result |
| Perfect score | A SGD 100 voucher, capped at SGD 1,000 across all recipients |
| Grand Champion | The three highest-scoring gold winners in each year group |
The Grand Champion award is per year group, from grade 1 through to grade 11 or 12, so a younger student competes for it against their own age group.
The playoff
A tie for champion is settled in person.
The Grand Champion tiebreak is unusual enough to be worth knowing about before travelling, because missing it forfeits the title.
Notice comes the day before
Tied competitors are told the day before the playoff. There is no long lead time, so a family needs to be reachable and available at short notice.
First correct answer wins
The playoff is decided by whoever solves the problem correctly first. It is a race, not a paper, and speed decides a title that months of preparation led to.
Attendance is the whole thing
The organisers state plainly that being present is critical. A student who is not there cannot win the playoff, however they scored in the main paper.
The decision is final
Results of the playoff are not open to appeal. That is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering afterwards.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares students for IJMO.
Students arrive here having already won a silver somewhere else, so the mathematics is not the gap. The mark scheme and the difficulty step are.
Rehearsing three different mark schemes
Answer everything in C, guess above one in four in B, above one in three in A. Students who have just come from AMO, where nothing is deducted, have to unlearn answering every question.
The step up from the qualifier
IJMO is set harder than SIMOC and considerably harder than the qualifying papers. Preparation treats it as a new level rather than more of the same practice.
Securing Section C first
Fifty of the hundred marks on offer sit in Section C, where wrong answers are free. Time management that reaches it with room to think is worth more than perfection in Section A.
Three minutes a question
Thirty questions in ninety minutes, with the hardest and most valuable at the end. Timed practice concentrates on not overspending on the low-value opening section.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for IJMO 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 IJMO 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 IJMO 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 IJMO, 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.
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IJMO, briefly answered.
What students and families ask about qualification and the paper.
Who can take part in IJMO?
Students in grades 2 to 11 who have won a silver award or better at AMO, SASMO or another qualifying contest in the family, and who are invited to represent their country. Bronze winners can qualify by completing the official IJMO training course.
Can I register for IJMO directly?
No. Places are allocated by invitation from the qualifying contests, so the route in runs through AMO or SASMO rather than through an IJMO entry form.
How is the paper structured?
30 questions in 90 minutes across three sections of ten. Section A is worth 2 marks a question, Section B 3, and Section C 5. Every candidate starts on 20 marks, for a total of 120.
Are marks deducted for wrong answers?
In Sections A and B, yes - one mark. In Section C, no. An unanswered question never costs anything in any section.
So should I guess?
Always in Section C, since a wrong answer is free. In Section B you need better than a one-in-four chance to come out ahead, and in Section A better than one in three.
How hard is IJMO?
It is set harder than SIMOC, the other international final in this family, and considerably harder than the qualifying papers that lead to it.
What are the awards?
Gold to the top 10%, silver to the next 15% and bronze to the next 25%, with merit and participation certificates below. A Grand Champion award goes to the three highest-scoring gold winners in each year group.
What happens if there is a tie for Grand Champion?
A playoff is held, with tied competitors notified the day before. The first to solve the problem correctly is crowned champion, attendance is essential, and the result cannot be appealed.
Related
How students reach IJMO.
The qualifying contests, and what sits alongside them.
IJMO enquiries
You qualify for this one somewhere else.
IJMO takes silver winners from AMO and SASMO, so the work that decides whether a student gets here happens a season earlier. Tell us where they currently sit and an advisor will map the qualifying route.