Two rounds per academic year, three grade-tuned papers, two divisions
Puzzles and riddles. Numbers, geometry, linear equations, combinatorics, and the first steps into logic and proofs. An excellent first competition for students who've never sat one before.
Number theory, more geometry and equations, inequalities, combinatorics and probability — longer, some with multiple steps. Designed to reward students who think structurally, not just quickly.
Everything that you could have been taught in a secondary school, with higher weighting placed on pre-calculus topics. Don't worry, we aim to deliver a test on problem solving, not knowledge or memorisation.
Registered through your school, a fully invigilated examination.
Your school will purchase, communicate, and receive the results on your behalf.
Register as an individual student or parent.
Note: Home Division is now only available on G10 or G12 papers. We are working on expanding to G8's!
↑ switch between these at any time
Most of this happens without you, a teacher handles the registering and the paying. Here is the part you actually see, in order.
A teacher registers your class and sorts out payment. Your school will collect payments on our behalf, plus some extra fees that they might require.
Your teacher gives every student one participation code. You'll also be instructed on what you'll have to do / bring on the test date.
Good luck with the exam.
Your answers reach our database immediately, and you don't have to do anything further.
A score report and the certificates are sent to your school. Your teacher passes them on. Schools with students with the highest marks will be contacted, and you'll be notified by the school.
We receive $15 per student for all of our papers. The school will be collecting payment on our behalf, and there might be extra charges from the school, associated with the administrative costs.
We issue the receipted invoice to the school once payment is confirmed. Any queries about payment should go through your school.
Practice papers are sent to your school for you to use before the sitting.
The Home Division runs for Grade 10 and Grade 12 only. The Grade 8 paper is sat at school.
And any student under 14 sits with their school, whatever their grade. If that's you, ask a teacher to Give this address to your teacher — the note should come from the school. — we'll take it from there, and you won't have to make the pitch yourself.
Here is what you'll actually experience, from registering through to your result.
One short form with payment at the end of it, and you'll receive a confirmation the moment it's done.
Your code, the zoom link, along with the instructions on how to participate, will be sent to the email that you had registered.
Camera on, at your own desk, for sixty minutes.
Your answers reach our database immediately, and you don't have to do anything further.
A score report and, where you've earned one, a certificate, emailed to you directly. Congrats!
Worth setting out in full, because it is the one part of the home route that asks something real of you, and you are entitled to know it before paying.
Paid at registration. That covers the paper, the invigilated sitting, the marking, your certificate and your score report.
The invoice arrives by email immediately after registration, alongside the confirmation.
A practice paper for your grade can be added at registration for +$2, if you want one.
A complete Grade 10 paper, free to download. The questions have vast difference in their difficulties, and we hope you'll find them engaging!
Everything comes back within 20 days of the paper
Your total and a certificate of participation. The mass score distribution will be released later, and you'll be able to find it on our website.
Both divisionsAwarded on where you place within your grade and division. Merit for the top 60%, Distinction for the top 20%.
Both divisionsTop performers in each grade take a special award (highest mark). A question for the next round will be set by one of the recipients of the award.
Both divisionsStudents with the special award from each grade are invited to submit a problem of their own for the following paper. Publication of at least one problem is guaranteed, and candidates will be considered within their own pool.
Submission is open to anyone who had participated in the round. Send your question to submission@prismmaths.org, we will go through all that we receive.
If yours is used, it runs with your name on it, and you'll have set a question that students somewhere else in the world will sit down and try to solve.
For a practical bit, you will receive another special award for setting a question alongside book prizes. We are still deciding on the specifics, so please don't hesitate to send us your suggestions.
Open one and have a look.
Certificates arrive as PDFs, ready to print at A4 landscape.
Entry is by grade, not by age. You may always sit a paper above your grade, but you may never sit one below it.
But we still recommend choosing only one of them. If you're unsure which, take the one for your grade.
Everyone sitting a paper does so within the same fixed window. Your own 60 minutes starts the moment you log in, so log in as close to the start as you can — the extra 10 minutes in the window is there in case your connection drops and you need to log back in. Detailed instructions will be provided 7 days before the exam.
Entries close 14 days before the paper, and the credentials and instructions go out a week before you sit the exam.
Names and details can be corrected free of charge until credentials go out. Cancel more than 14 days before the paper — any time up to the close of registration — for a full refund minus fees; inside 14 days, no refund. The same rule applies to individual and school entries. A school refund is returned by international bank transfer, minus the bank charges on the return.
So make sure to keep it safe!
Translations may follow in later years.
Dictionaries, translation tools and reference apps aren't permitted during the paper — the same rule as calculators and notes.
12 questions of varying difficulty, taken online. You don't need to submit your working.
Places for the November round are available now.
Register →