We're excited to welcome students back to the UC Berkeley campus on April 12, 2025, for this year's Berkeley mini Math Tournament! As in past years, the contest will consist of 4 rounds: Puzzle, Individual, Team, and Relay.
BmMT 2025 Q&A session
We will be holding a Q&A session about math competitions and BmMT on February 6 from 7–8 PM. If you are interested, please visit the news post for details on how to attend and submit questions!
BmMT is open to middle school students in grades 8 or below. In particular, there is no lower age limit to participate; advanced elementary school students are welcome to compete. Teams may have up to 5 students. You do not have to be local to the Bay Area or California to register for BmMT.
For those unable to make it to UC Berkeley campus, we're also offering BmMT 2025 Online, a synchronous online event, on June 7, 2025. Details about the online tournament be found on the BmMT 2025 Online Event Page.
This page contains primarily registration details. Detailed information on the schedule, rooms, and other day-of-tournament details will be released closer to the event date.
Registration PortalRegistration Timeline
Registration will open on Monday, February 10 at 9:00 AM PT. This year, registration will take place in two phases to give smaller organizations an opportunity to register.
Limited Capacity Available
Due to capacity constraints, we will limit registration to 1,200 participants. While we don't expect to reach this limit in Phase 1, we encourage coaches to register as soon as possible to guarantee space.
| Dates | Registration Period | Price Per Student | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/10 – 3/2 | Phase 1 | $15 | Limited to 30 seats per organization. Shirts may be pre-ordered for $8 per student. |
| 3/3 – 3/14 | Phase 2 | $15 | No limit on seats per organization. Shirts may be pre-ordered for $8 per student. |
| 3/15 – 4/4 | Late Registration | $25 | Shirts are not guaranteed, but may be purchased day-of for $10. |
*All dates are in US Pacific Time. That is, Phase 2 registration ends at 11:59 PM PT on 3/14/2025.
**For students facing financial hardship, please contact team@berkeley.mt for a fee waiver.
Student Eligibility
- Students must be in grade 8 or below to be eligible for BmMT.
- Students do not have to be local to the Bay Area, California, or the U.S. to participate in BmMT. However, we will also host BmMT Online 2025 on June 7, 2025, which may be more convenient for some students.
- Coaches may register multiple teams under the same organization. We ask that organizations provide at least one adult chaperone for every two teams.
How to Register
Most pre- and post-contest tasks, including registration, team assignments, signing of waivers, and viewing score reports, may be completed at ContestDojo, an online math competition platform. If you are unfamiliar with ContestDojo, please read our ContestDojo Guide.
All contestants are required to have their parent/guardian sign UC Berkeley's consent waivers through this portal. Contestants will NOT be allowed to take the contest without having a signed liability and consent to treatment waiver.
Any questions about the ContestDojo portal should be directed to us at team@berkeley.mt.
Teammate Finder
Students may register as a team of 1. However, it is beneficial to compete on a team of at least 3 due to our scoring guidelines. For students who do not have a full team, we have organized Teammate Finder spreadsheets. Follow all outlined steps in the spreadsheet.
BmMT 2025 In-Person Teammate FinderTravel and Transportation
UC Berkeley is situated in the East Bay region of Northern California, just across the bay from San Francisco. The Berkeley campus is a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Downtown Berkeley BART transit station, which connects directly to both the Oakland and San Francisco airports. Berkeley is also easily accessible by car. Information about parking can be found in our FAQ.
A printable PDF map of campus can be found here, and more maps can be found at berkeley.edu/map. Note that the top of the PDF map represents the eastern parts of campus. Google Maps is also usually reliable for navigating campus.
Hotels
New this year, for teams who are interested in booking a hotel room, we have a Hotel Room Block with discounted rates around contest weekend at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza. The cost is $239 per night before taxes and fees.
Teams wishing to join the hotel block must book by Tuesday, March 25.
Schedule
We expect the event to begin no earlier than 7:30 AM and end no later than 7:30 PM.
A detailed event schedule will be released closer to the event date.
Lunch
This year, we are offering lunch for students, coaches, and parents at $12 per person, catered from Crave Subs, a local Berkeley sandwich shop. Those who wish to take this option must pre-order on ContestDojo through their coach. There are three menu items to choose from:
- Ned Flanders — Turkey, Crave Sauce, Lettuce, & Tomato
- Mr. Incredible — Pastrami, Crave Sauce, Lettuce, & Tomato
- Vegan Marvin The Martian — Cucumbers, Pesto, Arugula, Crave Sauce, Lettuce, & Tomato
Students, coaches and parents are also free to find their own food. Many restaurants can be found on the south side of campus (~5 minute walk from rooms) and in Downtown Berkeley (~15 minute walk from rooms).
Contest Format
Puzzle Round (75 mins)
The Puzzle Round is a team-based round that consists of a variety of mathematical challenges designed to promote inductive reasoning and lateral thinking.
Individual Round (60 mins)
The Individual Round consists of 20 short answer questions spanning various subjects typically found in math competitions. This includes, but is not limited to, algebra, geometry, counting, probability, and number theory.
Team Round (60 mins)
The Team Round consists of 20 short answer questions. Students may work with their teams on these questions.
Relay Round (TBA mins)
The Relay Round consists of 20 problems across various subjects in math. The key feature of this round is that some questions may depend on answers from one or multiple prior questions.
Scoring
Individual Round scores are determined by the number of correct answers. Each correct answer is worth 1 point, i.e. there is no weighting among the problems.
Team Round scores are determined based on a combination of teams' scores on the Puzzle, Team, and Relay Rounds, as well as the Individual Round scores of their team members. The weights are displayed in the table in summary table below.
When weighting team scores, scores for a given test will be normalized by either the average of the top 10 scores or the top 10% of scores, whichever represents more students/teams.
Tiebreakers
A tiebreaking procedure is employed for top awards for each test. Ties are not broken for honorable mentions or calculating overall team scores.
To streamline the event, we have a new automatic tiebreaker policy this year, which works as follows:
- First, problems are ordered from hardest to easiest, based on the number of correct submissions.
- The n-th hardest problem is assigned a tiebreaking value of 2−n. For example, the hardest problem will have a tiebreaking value of ½, the second hardest problem will have a tiebreaking value of ¼, et cetera.
- Each student's tiebreaking index is calculated as the sum of their original score and the tiebreaker values of the problems that they correctly answered.
- Students are ordered by their tiebreaking index, determining their tiebroken rank.
In simpler terms, among those tied for the same score, whoever solved the hardest problem is placed the highest, followed by the one who solved the next hardest, and so on.
The Puzzle Round may be tiebroken with a special procedure. We will release more details about this procedure closer to the event date.
Additional Tiebreaker Procedure
If a tie remains on the Individual Round after the preceding automatic tiebreaking procedure — i.e., if two students correctly answered precisely the same set of problems, then those students will participate in an additional Tiebreaker Round. Ties that remain on the Puzzle Round, Team, or Relay Rounds will not be tiebroken.
This 15-minute test will consist of three questions, and be scored primarily on correctness and secondarily on submission time; i.e. an earlier submission will be worth more than a later one with the same number of correct answers, but less than a later one with more correct answers.
Students may submit multiple times within the duration of the test, but only the last submission will be considered.
Summary
| Puzzle | Individual | Team | Relay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Important Details | Puzzle-based | N/A | N/A | Questions may rely on answers to other questions |
| Location | Assigned Classrooms — See Tournament Guide | |||
| # of Questions | TBA | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Duration | 75 mins | 60 mins | 60 mins | TBA |
| % of Score | 20% | 40% | 30% | 10% |
| Important Scoring Notes | N/A | If teams have less than 3 members, the remaining scores will be counted as 0 | N/A | N/A |
| Collaboration? | Yes | No, students will work individually | Yes | Yes |
Acceptable Answers
Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the acceptable answer formats document and common notions document for details on how their answers should be submitted. Answers not submitted in the listed formats will be graded as incorrect, even if equivalent.
Activities
During the afternoon, we will be hosting student activities. These are optional activities that promote recreational math. Detailed information about activities will be released closer to the event date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are calculators or other reference material allowed?
Graph paper and calculators are prohibited, but protractors, rulers, and compasses are permitted. Blank white scratch paper will be provided for all participants. All answers must be exact, reduced, and simplified. Illegible answers will not be graded. Cheating in any form will not be tolerated, and failure to comply with all rules may result in immediate and irreversible disqualification.
Can middle school students compete? What if I don't have a team?
Yes! BmMT is open to any student in 8th grade or below, including those who haven't entered middle school. While students are allowed to compete as individuals, we highly recommend that students compete on a team of at least 3 due to our scoring guidelines.
How are awards handled?
Awards will be physically presented to contestants at the closing ceremony.
I'm in a different timezone or non-local and can't compete live. What are my options?
We are offering BmMT 2025 Online on June 7, 2025.
Additionally, our partner ASDAN will be hosting BmMT 2025 China from May 24–25, 2025.
Where can I find parking? How can I get to Berkeley?
BMT does not provide travel or parking for students — coaches should arrange their own travel logistics. There are a number of parking garages around campus, including the Telegraph-Channing Garage, Underhill Structure, Lower Hearst Structure, and the RSF Garage.
The Telegraph-Channing Garage is recommended for most people; it is cheaper than campus-owned garages (and free up to an hour) and more conveniently located than most of the garages listed.
Berkeley is also public-transport-friendly. The Downtown Berkeley BART station is next to campus, and may be a good fit for those commuting from San Francisco or the East Bay. For teams staying in Emeryville, bus line 36 will take you directly to campus. Check the AC Transit website for more options.
