Competitions · Mathematics · Australian AMC
The Australian Mathematics Competition.
The largest school-based mathematics competition in the world, running since 1978 and sat by sixteen million students across its history. Papers are printed in Chinese and English side by side, and roughly six in ten Chinese entrants come away with an award.
First, a clarification
This is not the American AMC.
Two different competitions are called AMC. This page is the Australian Mathematics Competition, run by the Australian Mathematics Trust since 1978. The American AMC 8, AMC 10 and AMC 12, run by the Mathematical Association of America, are separate contests with their own pages on this site.
They differ in almost everything that matters: year coverage, paper structure, marking, difficulty and what a result leads to. If you arrived here looking for the contest that qualifies students for AIME, that is the American one.
At a glance
What the competition is, and who sits it.
The Australian Mathematics Trust was founded by the mathematician Peter O’Halloran, and uses this competition as one of its indicators when selecting Australia’s team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. It first ran in mainland China in 2017.
- Organiser
- The Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT)
- History
- Running since 1978. Sixteen million students from 32 countries have taken part across its history, with entrants from more than thirty countries each year
- Who can enter
- Students from grade 1 to grade 12, across six difficulty levels
- Language
- Bilingual. Papers are supplied in Chinese and English, so no English requirement stands between a student and the contest
- Format
- 30 questions - the first 25 multiple choice, the last 5 answered as an integer from 0 to 999
- Duration
- 60 minutes for the primary levels, 75 minutes for secondary
- Marks
- 135
- Calculators
- Not needed. Every question is designed to be answerable quickly without one
- Where
- At partner schools, or online with a camera-equipped computer and a mobile device
- Award rate
- Around 60% of Chinese entrants receive an award - among the highest of any international mathematics competition
- What every entrant gets
- A detailed report showing performance question by question against the wider field, and a certificate reflecting that performance
Changing for 2026
Two things move this cycle.
Both changes are worth noting before planning, because one opens the contest to younger students and the other shifts the whole calendar.
A new Pre-A level for grades 1 and 2
Until now the youngest paper started at grade 3. The new Pre-A level brings the contest down to grades 1 and 2, which makes it one of the few internationally recognised papers available at that age.
The date moves from September to October
The 2026 sitting is on 11 October rather than in September. A family working from a previous year’s calendar will plan a month early.
Register before the school year starts
Students are asked to register for the level matching their year group before term begins in September, so the decision comes earlier than the October date suggests.
Two sittings on the day
Primary levels sit in the morning for sixty minutes; secondary levels sit in the afternoon for seventy-five. A school entering both runs the contest twice.
Levels
Six papers from grade 1 to grade 12.
A student sits the level matching their year group and is ranked within their own grade, not against the level as a whole.
| Level | Year groups | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-A | Grades 1 and 2 — new for 2026 | Morning |
| A, Middle Primary | Grades 3 to 5 | Morning |
| B, Upper Primary | Grades 6 and 7 | Morning |
| C, Junior | Grades 8 and 9 | Afternoon |
| D, Intermediate | Grades 10 and 11 | Afternoon |
| E, Senior | Grade 12 only | Afternoon |
Morning sessions run 60 minutes and afternoon sessions 75, so the level a student sits also determines how long they have.
Marking
How the 135 marks are distributed.
The paper escalates steadily and then sharply. The last five questions alone carry as much as the first ten and eleven to twenty combined would suggest.
| Questions | Type | Marks each | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | Multiple choice | 3 | 30 |
| 11 to 20 | Multiple choice | 4 | 40 |
| 21 to 25 | Multiple choice | 5 | 25 |
| 26 to 30 | Integer answer, 0 to 999 | 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in turn | 40 |
The final five questions rise individually in value, so question 30 alone is worth more than three of the opening questions put together.
Award thresholds
What each award required in 2025.
Thresholds are set per grade rather than per level, and they move every year with the difficulty of the paper. These are the 2025 figures, out of 135.
| Grade | Prize | High Distinction | Distinction | Credit | Proficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 124 | 102 | 75 | 56 | 32 |
| 4 | 132 | 110 | 83 | 66 | 32 |
| 5 | 135 | 118 | 92 | 75 | 32 |
| 6 | 128 | 111 | 91 | 74 | 32 |
| 7 | 128 | 111 | 94 | 79 | 32 |
| 8 | 130 | 111 | 89 | 73 | 32 |
| 9 | 130 | 112 | 91 | 74 | 32 |
| 10 | 122 | 101 | 80 | 62 | 32 |
| 11 | 127 | 109 | 84 | 65 | 32 |
| 12 | 130 | 116 | 90 | 67 | 32 |
Two things stand out. The Prize threshold for grade 5 in 2025 was 135 - a perfect paper, nothing less. And Proficiency sits at a flat 32 for every grade, making it an absolute bar rather than a percentile.
Reading the thresholds
What those numbers tell a family.
The cut-off table is the most useful thing on this page for setting a realistic target, provided it is read properly.
Proficiency is reachable and fixed
Thirty-two marks out of 135, the same in every grade and every year. That is roughly the first ten questions. For a first-time entrant it is a concrete, unmoving target rather than a race against the field.
Credit is the realistic ambition
Between 56 and 79 depending on grade - about half the paper. A prepared student who secures the three- and four-mark questions and takes a serious run at the fives is in this band.
The top bands narrow sharply
High Distinction sits around 101 to 118, and Prize at 122 to 135. Between Credit and Prize is most of the difficulty of the paper, concentrated in the last ten questions.
Thresholds differ by grade, not by level
Grade 6 and grade 7 sit the same paper but are ranked separately, and their thresholds differ. A younger student in a level is not disadvantaged by the older one beside them.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares students for the Australian AMC.
With a 60% award rate and a fixed Proficiency bar, this is a contest where a modest amount of well-aimed preparation changes the outcome noticeably.
Bank the first twenty
Questions 1 to 20 carry 70 of the 135 marks and are the most tractable. Securing them reliably clears Proficiency and puts Credit within reach before the hard questions begin.
Two different clocks
Sixty minutes for primary levels and seventy-five for secondary, both across thirty questions. Timed practice uses the student’s actual session length rather than an average.
The last five are answered, not chosen
Questions 26 to 30 need an integer from 0 to 999 rather than an option. Students practise producing answers rather than eliminating choices, which is a different habit.
No calculator, by design
Every question is built to be answered quickly without one. Preparation reinforces mental and written arithmetic instead of working around its absence.
Why Hanlin
Hanlin has been entering students for Australian AMC for years, and publishes what they got. The record is further down this page.
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 Australian AMC 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 Australian AMC 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.
First prizes in 2024
One line from Hanlin's published Australian AMC record. The rest of it is below.
Australian AMC
- 20242 O'Halloran achievement awards, 19 first prizes, 55 second prizes and 69 third prizes
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 Australian AMC, 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
The Australian AMC, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Is this the same as AMC 8, 10 and 12?
No. This is the Australian Mathematics Competition, run by the Australian Mathematics Trust. AMC 8, 10 and 12 are American contests run by the Mathematical Association of America, with their own pages on this site.
Who can enter?
Students from grade 1 to grade 12. Six levels cover the range: Pre-A for grades 1 and 2, A for 3 to 5, B for 6 and 7, C for 8 and 9, D for 10 and 11, and E for grade 12.
Do I need good English?
No. Papers are supplied bilingually in Chinese and English, so only the mathematics is being tested.
What is on the paper?
Thirty questions for 135 marks. The first 25 are multiple choice at 3, 4 and 5 marks. The last five are answered as an integer from 0 to 999 and are worth 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 marks in turn.
Can I use a calculator?
You should not need one. Every question is designed to be answerable quickly without one.
What score do I need for an award?
Thresholds are set per grade each year. In 2025 Proficiency sat at 32 for every grade, Credit between 56 and 79, Distinction between 75 and 94, High Distinction between 101 and 118, and Prize between 122 and 135.
What has changed for 2026?
A new Pre-A level opens the contest to grades 1 and 2, and the sitting moves from September to 11 October. Registration for the matching level is asked for before the school year begins.
What does every entrant receive?
A detailed report showing how they answered each question relative to the wider field, and a certificate reflecting their performance. Around 60% of Chinese entrants receive an award.
Related
Contests around it.
The American contests with the same acronym, and the AMT papers beyond this one.
Australian AMC enquiries
Thirty-two marks out of 135 is an award, in any grade.
The Proficiency bar does not move with the field or the year, which makes this an unusually good first international paper. Tell us the student’s year group and an advisor will confirm the level and the October date.