Maths Olympiad Prep

For teachers

A complete, free Olympiad maths resource for teachers

Use it to assess your pupils and place each one at the right level. From there they follow a structured route through competition mathematics, and you can print problem sets with worked solutions or run an Olympiad or maths enrichment club from it.

Download the Free Teacher Pack See the Structured Routes

Free. No adverts. No pupil accounts required.

The short version

  • What is it?

    2,604 competition problems in 10 stages, from Junior Challenge to the IMO shortlist, plus 20,421 more to search.

    See the routes

  • Why use it with pupils?

    Each pupil gets the next problem at the right difficulty, and a worked solution once they’ve had a real go.

  • Which pupils is it for?

    Anyone who enjoys problem solving or wants more challenge. Stage 1 needs nothing beyond class maths.

  • Where should a pupil start?

    A placement test that starts from the pupil’s school year and names a stage, from 1 to 7, and a problem to start on.

    Placement test

  • What can I print?

    Worksheets with a teacher version, 50 ready-made sets and a twelve-page teacher pack.

    Make a worksheet

  • Can I run a club with it?

    Yes. There’s a session plan and a ten-week programme with a sheet for every week.

    Club guide

  • Is it genuinely free?

    Yes. There are no adverts and nothing to pay for, now or later.

  • Do pupils need accounts?

    No. Everything works signed out. Accounts are only for following a class.

    Following a class

  • Can I share it?

    Please do. The short address to give a colleague is mathsolympiadprep.com/teach

Using it with pupils

A class at mixed levels

Send everyone the placement test. It’s done with pen and paper beside a screen, and each pupil comes out with a stage and a link to its first problem. The strongest aren’t repeating what they can already do, and the rest aren’t facing something hopeless.

The placement test

One pupil who has run out of road

Pick the goal they’re aiming at and give them the route below. Each route says how many problems it holds and how many hours a week it takes, so the commitment is clear before they start.

The routes

A weekly club or enrichment hour

The club guide has a session plan, a ten-week programme and a printable sheet for every week, at whatever stage your group is working.

Start an Olympiad club

Homework, cover or a booklet

Make a sheet by stage and topic, from 3 to 10 problems. The student version has room to work; the teacher version adds the answers, worked solutions and where each problem came from.

Create a problem set

The structured routes

The track runs from stage 1 (Junior Challenge) to stage 10 (Hardest shortlist). A route is the part of it between where a pupil is now and what they’re aiming at, with the workload worked out. Hours are estimates made from the stage, not measurements. What each stage asks of a pupil.

Structured routes through the track
Route Stages Problems Weeks Hours a week
Start competition maths 1–3 900 26 4
Qualify for AIME 3–5 1,000 26 11
Make USAMO 4–7 1,440 52 13
Reach BMO Round 2 3–7 1,700 104 7
From BMO to the squad 6–9 932 78 10
Train at the hardest end 7–10 564 52 13

Following a class

This is optional, and it’s the only part of the site that needs a pupil account. Make a class and you get a six-character code. Pupils enter it once, and after that you have a page showing who is working and who has stopped, and how far up the stages each of them has got.

It only starts when the pupil enters your code, and they can leave the class themselves. You see counts, stages and dates, never what a pupil typed as an answer.

Set up a class

Class accounts are switched on by hand. Sign in under Set up a class and fill in the short form, or write to schools@mathsolympiadprep.com.

Where the problems come from

Official competition papers and booklets from 43 countries, 1989–2026, international shortlists and open datasets. 2,299 of the 2,604 track problems have a full worked solution on their page, and the rest link to the publisher’s own solution, which we don’t reproduce. Every problem names the competition it came from. The problems belong to the people who set them, and they’ll stay free.

Sources and licences

Honest limits

Stage 10 is ordered by rank rather than against a fixed standard, because nothing in the source data records which shortlist problems were hardest. The placement test stops at stage 7, since beyond that almost everything wants a proof and a browser can’t mark one. Hour estimates are estimates: some problems fall in minutes and some take an evening.