Maths Olympiad Years 5-6
Junior Division
About The Program
The Junior Division Olympiad (Division J) is an inter-school competition that has been specifically designed to stimulate and challenge high potential and high achieving students in Years 5 and 6.
It provides an opportunity for students from around Australia and New Zealand to compete as part of a team while striving for individual excellence. It is a prestigious and highly regarded competition that has been running in Australia since 1987.
The main aims of the competition are to:
- Provide teachers with an ongoing, high quality and well recognised enrichment and extension opportunity for their high potential or gifted students.
- Provide teachers with a means to evaluate and benchmark their students’ progress compared to thousands of other students competing in the competition.
- Develop increased creativity and flexibility in problem solving and mathematical reasoning.
- Stimulate students' enthusiasm for, and enjoyment of, mathematics.
- Allow high achieving students to showcase their skills and abilities and be recognised for their efforts and achievement.
2025 Competition Dates
- Competition One - Wednesday, 7th May 2025
- Competition Two - Wednesday, 11th June 2025
- Competition Three - Wednesday, 30th July 2025
- Competition Four - Wednesday, 10th September 2025
Applications for date changes can be made in the Members’ area
Who Can Enter?
- The competition is aimed at high achieving/ high potential and gifted Years 5 and 6 students.
- Registration is only open to schools in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Australian International Schools.
- Individual registration is not possible.
- Schools can enter an unlimited number of teams with up to 30 students per team.
Program Format
Unlike the Maths Games and Maths Explorer programs that focus on teaching specific problem solving strategies, the Maths Olympiad is a prestigious inter-school competition that presents high achieving students with a wide variety of problems, designed to challenge and extend them individually. The aim is to provide a level playing field for all students, while encouraging them to think independently in solving the problems presented.
- The Olympiad comprises four separate contests held approximately six weeks apart, starting in early Term 2.
- Students are required to complete all four contests.
- Each contest paper contains 5 questions, worth 1 mark each, and the paper must be completed in a specified time-frame of 30 minutes.
- Contest papers are completed individually by each student with no collaboration during contests.
- Each contest is held under exam conditions in the classroom and marked by the teacher in charge who then submits the results to APSMO via our Members' Portal.
- Following each contest paper, APSMO recommends that the solutions be reviewed and discussed as a group to enhance learning.
Program Resources
APSMO provides resources to support teachers in identifying and preparing suitable students to participate in the Maths Olympiad. We also provide guidance on running the competition and class activities to engage and extend high-achieving students throughout the year. The resources we provide include:
- An APSMO evaluation tool that supports teachers by helping them identify where students sit on the learning continuum regarding their problem-solving ability and potential, determining their suitability for the Maths Olympiad or one of our other programs.
- A Preparation Kit in Term 1 that contains a selection of problems covering the skills and terminology that will be used in the contest papers, including fully worked solutions.
- After each contest, a set of Follow-Up Questions based on the problems and strategies in each paper is provided. These class activities are designed to engage the students in further ongoing mathematical challenges.
- A solution video for each competition paper that demonstrates relevant problem-solving strategies and showcases student solutions. Classes are encouraged to view and consider the strategies shared in the video and then discuss and share their ideas.
- Past Maths Olympiad papers, available in the Members' Portal, are available for classes to access, allowing students to prepare through practice.
- Resource Books available for purchase on this website contain compilations of questions from the Year 5 & 6 and Year 7 & 8 Maths Olympiads.
- The APSMO Problem of the Week videos available on this website include questions suited to Maths Olympiad Junior students.
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