United Kingdom · Ages 9 to 18 · November, March and June

UKMT Kangaroo rounds practice

The Kangaroo is the biggest school mathematics competition on earth and most British parents have never heard of it. UKMT is the UK member of the Association Kangourou sans Frontières, and around six million young people sit a Kangaroo paper somewhere in the world each year. In Britain it arrives as a follow-on round: a pupil does well in a Challenge, and a few weeks later sits twenty-five multiple-choice questions in sixty minutes at a level a notch above. The format looks familiar and the questions are not, and there is one thing about a good multiple-choice paper that almost nobody explains to a child before they sit one.

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Quoted from UKMT with the date we read it · Our own practice questions · No guessing advice, because no marking scheme is published

In short

The UKMT Kangaroo rounds are follow-on papers to the Mathematical Challenges. Grey and Pink are described by UKMT as "60 minute, 25 multiple choice challenges" following the Intermediate Maths Challenge, with Grey for "England and Wales: Year 9 and below" and Pink for "England and Wales: Year 10 and 11"; both fall on 18 March 2027 alongside the Primary Kangaroo, "a 20 question multiple choice paper aimed at students aged 9-11". The Junior Kangaroo, 60 minutes and 25 questions for "students year 8 or below", is on 15 June 2027, and the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo, same length for "students year 13 or below", on 18 November 2026. Entry is by invitation on a qualifying Challenge score or by discretionary entry, and UKMT says several thousand UK students qualify from the Intermediate Challenge each year. We teach the mathematics underneath, live online for ages 6 to 67. The first class is free; a group place is USD 100 a month and one-to-one teaching USD 150.

Where to start

Three courses for a Kangaroo candidate

Speed comes from fluency, and fluency is the thing a course can actually build.

Mental Maths for Kids course thumbnail

KAN / 01

Mental maths for kids

For the Primary and Junior papers: calculation that arrives instead of being worked out.

Open the syllabus →
Middle School Mathematics Mastery course thumbnail

KAN / 02

Middle school maths mastery

For Grey and Pink: the algebra, ratio and geometry those questions are built from.

Open the syllabus →
Maths Olympiad & Competition Course course thumbnail

KAN / 03

Olympiad and competition maths

For a pupil who finds the Challenge easy and wants questions that resist a first look.

Open the syllabus →

The five papers

One format, five age groups, three dates

Facts read at UKMT's own pages on 20 September 2026.

The UKMT Kangaroo rounds, as UKMT publishes them
Paper2026-27 dateFormatWho sits it
Primary Kangaroo18 March 202720 multiple choice questionsAged 9 to 11: Year 5 or 6 and below in England and Wales, P6 or P7 and below in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Junior Kangaroo15 June 202725 questions in 60 minutes"students year 8 or below", following the Junior Mathematical Challenge
Grey Kangaroo18 March 202725 questions in 60 minutesYear 9 and below in England and Wales, S2 or below in Scotland, Year 10 or below in Northern Ireland
Pink Kangaroo18 March 202725 questions in 60 minutesYear 10 and 11 in England and Wales, S3 and S4 in Scotland, Year 11 or 12 in Northern Ireland
Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo18 November 202625 questions in 60 minutes"students year 13 or below", following the Senior Mathematical Challenge

Every one of these is a follow-on. A pupil does not enter a Kangaroo paper directly: they sit a Mathematical Challenge first, and UKMT invites those above a qualifying score, with discretionary entries also possible through a school. Several thousand UK students qualify from the Intermediate Challenge each year.

That means the honest answer to "how do I get my child into the Kangaroo" is to make sure their school enters the Challenge. Nothing a tutor does can shortcut it, and we could not enter anyone if we tried.

The international scale is worth knowing because it explains the style. UKMT is the UK member of the Association Kangourou sans Frontières, and around six million young people take a Kangaroo paper each year across dozens of countries. Questions that work in that many places tend to be short, visual and language-light, which suits some pupils very well and surprises others.

Two of these papers share their date with an olympiad. The Grey and Pink papers fall on 18 March 2027, the same afternoon as Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin, and the Junior Kangaroo shares 15 June 2027 with the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. They are entirely different papers, and a pupil sits one.

Sources: UKMT, Grey and Pink Kangaroos, Primary Kangaroo and the competitions calendar, read 20 September 2026. We have no connection with the UK Mathematics Trust or Kangourou sans Frontières.

The method

The wrong answers are somebody's working

In a well-written multiple-choice paper the options are not decoration. Each wrong one is the number a particular ordinary mistake produces.

Take a question of the right shape. A price goes up by 10 per cent, then down by 10 per cent, and finishes at 99. What was it before? Most pupils get to an answer inside a minute. The interesting part is how many different answers a minute produces.

Our arithmetic of 20 September 2026: one question, six plausible numbers
NumberThe thinking that produces itRight?
100Up 10 per cent then down 10 per cent multiplies by 0.99, so the start was 99 divided by 0.99Yes
99The two changes look as though they cancel, so nothing happenedNo, and this is the one that catches most people
110Undoing only the 10 per cent fall: 99 divided by 0.9No
90Undoing only the 10 per cent rise: 99 divided by 1.1No
108.9Adding 10 per cent to the final figure instead of undoing itNo
89.1Taking 10 per cent off the final figureNo

Why this matters

Five of those six numbers could be printed as options, and each one would feel right to the pupil who produced it. Finding your answer on the list is not evidence that you are correct.

The habit that helps

Work the answer out before looking at the options, then look. If the number is there, ask once what mistake would also land there. It costs five seconds.

Why 99 is the trap

A rise and fall of the same percentage never cancel, because the second percentage is taken of a bigger number. That single fact is worth more Kangaroo marks than any amount of speed.

This is the part of multiple-choice technique that is actually mathematics rather than exam craft. A pupil who understands why the naive answer is wrong has learned something that stays; a pupil who has been taught to eliminate options has learned a trick that only works on papers.

It also explains a pattern parents notice and misread: a child scoring well on school tests and poorly on a Kangaroo paper is usually not slower. They are being caught by options built out of the mistakes school tests never punish, because school tests ask them to show working and the error shows up.

We give no advice on guessing anywhere on this page. UKMT does not publish a marking scheme for these papers on the pages we could read, so whether a wrong answer costs anything is not something we know, and a guessing rule built on an assumption is worse than none.

What we do teach is that the answer should be arrived at before the options are read. Everything else about multiple choice follows from that one habit.

The question and all six numbers are ours, computed on 20 September 2026. No UKMT question is reproduced anywhere on this page; UKMT publishes its own past papers free.

How to practise

Twenty-five questions, sixty minutes, and the ones to leave

Two minutes and twenty-four seconds a question is the average, and a pupil should almost never spend it evenly.

What helps on a Kangaroo paper, and what does not
Worth doingWhyNot worth doing
Arriving at an answer before reading the optionsThe options are built from likely errors and will confirm one of themScanning the options first to narrow down
Practising mental arithmetic to fluencyEvery second not spent calculating is a second spent thinkingDrilling past papers against a clock with shaky tables
Learning to leave a question and come backSix minutes on one question costs two and a half othersRefusing to move on out of stubbornness
Checking the size of an answerMost wrong options are the right size, but some are absurd once you lookTrusting a calculation that was never sanity-checked
Doing UKMT past papers with the solutionsThe organiser publishes both, free, and the solutions explain the trapsBuying a course to teach what the organiser gives away

The step up from a Challenge to a Kangaroo catches families out. It is the same format at a harder level, so a pupil who was comfortable in the Challenge can find the follow-on genuinely difficult, and read that as a verdict on themselves. It is not: the paper is sat by pupils already in the top slice of the Challenge.

For the Primary Kangaroo the picture is gentler still: twenty questions, ages nine to eleven, and most schools enter a handful of pupils who enjoy the Primary Maths Challenge.

A pupil who wants harder mathematics after a Kangaroo should look at the written papers rather than more multiple choice. The Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin olympiads run on the same afternoon as Grey and Pink, and they ask for something completely different.

The whole season, with every organiser named and every date checked, is on the competitions calendar.

Getting ready

Four rungs to a comfortable hour

A pupil moves up when the previous habit needs no thought, not when a year passes.

From arithmetic to unfamiliar questions at speed
StageRungThe sign it is secure
Ages 9 to 101. RecallTables, doubles and percentages of round numbers arrive without working
Ages 10 to 122. Methods that do not wobbleFractions, ratio and area come out right when the numbers are awkward
Ages 12 to 143. Answer before optionsReaches a number first and then looks at what is printed
Ages 14 to 184. Knowing when to leaveAbandons a question at two minutes without it costing any confidence

If the paper is next week

Work UKMT's own past papers with the published solutions, and read why each wrong option is there. That is the whole of useful last-minute preparation.

Do not add topics. A Kangaroo paper is built from mathematics the pupil has already met.

If a pupil wants more

The olympiad papers on the same dates ask for written arguments instead, which is a different and deeper skill.

Pupils who enjoy fast puzzle work often take to programming quickly, which is what maths through coding is built for.

The full list

Courses behind a fast, accurate hour

Grouped by age, with the syllabus behind every card.

I

Primary and Junior

Ages 9 to 13

KAN / A / 01

Mental maths for kids

Calculation that stops costing thinking time.

Open the syllabus

KAN / A / 02

Primary maths, Years 1 to 5

The number work every fast paper assumes.

Open the syllabus

KAN / A / 03

Abacus and mental maths

From first beads to calculating with none.

Open the syllabus
II

Grey and Pink

Years 9 to 11

KAN / B / 01

Middle school maths mastery

Ratio, algebra and geometry at the level these papers use.

Open the syllabus

KAN / B / 02

GCSE maths

The school course, taught to the board in use.

Open the syllabus

KAN / B / 03

Vedic maths

Speed methods for the arithmetic underneath.

Open the syllabus
III

Senior

Years 12 and 13

KAN / C / 01

High school mathematics

Algebra through to calculus, at sixth-form pace.

Open the syllabus

KAN / C / 02

A-level maths

The qualification running alongside the competitions.

Open the syllabus

KAN / C / 03

Olympiad and competition maths

For questions that do not announce their method.

Open the syllabus
IV

Sideways

For pupils who also build

KAN / D / 01

Maths through coding

Python as a way of seeing why a method works.

Open the syllabus

KAN / D / 02

Python and AI for kids

A first typed language for a curious ten-year-old.

Open the syllabus

KAN / D / 03

Algorithms and data structures

Searching, sorting and how long a method takes.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Short weekly sessions, with the arithmetic done out loud

Teaching is live on video from India, five and a half hours ahead of the UK in winter and four and a half in summer. Younger pupils take an early evening slot, agreed in UK time.

Early weekday evening

For pupils of primary and lower secondary age.

Later weekday evening

For Year 10 upwards.

Weekend morning

For a longer session on a set of questions.

Answers before options

Every practice question is worked to a number before anything printed is looked at.

Mistakes named

When a pupil lands on a wrong option we work out which mistake produced it, rather than moving on.

Five to ten pupils

Enough for a quicker method to surface, small enough that nobody hides at the back.

Our own questions

Written by us in the same style. UKMT publishes its past papers free and that is where the real ones live.

One to one when useful

For a pupil far ahead of their year, or one who freezes in a timed group.

Nothing promised

We cannot enter anyone for a Kangaroo paper and promise no score or certificate.

Student work

What our students build

Four published projects by students at our school, none of them competition entries. More on the student labs page.

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A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

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An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

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Kangaroo questions

What parents and pupils ask

What is the UKMT Kangaroo?

A set of follow-on papers to the Mathematical Challenges. UKMT is the UK member of the Association Kangourou sans Frontières, and around six million young people take a Kangaroo paper worldwide each year.

When are the Kangaroo rounds in 2026-27?

The Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo is on 18 November 2026; the Primary, Grey and Pink Kangaroos on 18 March 2027; the Junior Kangaroo on 15 June 2027.

How long is the paper and how many questions?

UKMT describes the Junior, Grey, Pink and Senior papers as 60 minutes and 25 multiple-choice questions. The Primary Kangaroo is a 20-question multiple-choice paper for pupils aged 9 to 11.

Which paper does my child sit?

Grey is for Year 9 and below in England and Wales, S2 or below in Scotland and Year 10 or below in Northern Ireland; Pink is Year 10 and 11, S3 and S4, or Year 11 or 12. Junior is for Year 8 or below and Senior for Year 13 or below.

How does a pupil qualify?

By sitting a Mathematical Challenge first. UKMT invites pupils above a qualifying score and also accepts discretionary entries through a school. Several thousand UK students qualify from the Intermediate Challenge each year.

Should my child guess if they are unsure?

We do not give guessing advice. UKMT does not publish a marking scheme for these papers on the pages we could read, so we do not know whether a wrong answer costs anything, and a rule built on an assumption would be worse than none.

Why did my child pick a wrong answer that looked right?

Because the wrong options are usually built from real mistakes. A price that rises 10 per cent and falls 10 per cent ends at 99 per cent of where it started, so "the changes cancel" produces a number that will very often be printed.

Is the Kangaroo the same as the olympiad on that date?

No. The Grey and Pink papers fall on the same afternoon as the Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin olympiads, and the Junior Kangaroo shares its day with the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. Kangaroo papers are multiple choice; olympiad papers want full written solutions.

How should a pupil practise?

With UKMT's own past papers and published solutions, reading why each wrong option is there, and with mental arithmetic until calculation stops costing time. Not by drilling against a clock with shaky tables.

What do classes cost?

The first lesson is free. A group place is then USD 100 a month and one-to-one teaching USD 150, with nothing to join and no minimum term.

Related pages

Other papers on the same dates

The written papers that share a calendar with these, and where the whole year is set out.

Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin

Same afternoon as Grey and Pink, entirely different paper.

Junior Mathematical Olympiad

Shares 15 June 2027 with the Junior Kangaroo.

Primary Maths Challenge

The November paper for ages 9 to 11.

UK competitions calendar 2026-27

Dates for every contest, checked with the people who run them.

Coding classes in the UK

The four school systems, and every UK page.

Choosing an online class

How to tell a serious provider from a well-designed one.

Start here

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Rather read? Each course keeps its syllabus on its own course page, the method is on how we teach, and the roadmap shows what follows what.

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