BmMT 2026 April 12 Tournament Day Logistics

Shown below is a transcription of an email sent out to all coaches and students registered for BmMT 2026.

To all coaches and students,

BmMT is rapidly approaching! Please read this email in its entirety as it contains the tournament day logistics.

Event Details Tournament guide will be added soon.

Important Information

During BmMT, we will be posting updates to the website (https://berkeley.mt), including Tiebreaker qualifiers. Please be on the lookout for any announcements. For any day-of directions, questions or concerns ask a BMT staff member or volunteer wearing a dark green shirt.

An annotated campus map is provided at the bottom of this page.

Information Desk

For students who get lost or are arriving late, we will hold an information booth in Dwinelle Plaza after the Puzzle Round begins at 9:00 AM.

Arrival and Check-in

Check-in / materials pick-up will happen in Dwinelle Hall at 8:00 AM:

• Dwinelle 145 — Coaches who haven't checked in online should go here.
• Dwinelle 155 — Coaches who have checked in online should go here for materials pick-up.

At check-in, coaches will receive:

• A sticker sheet containing name tags for each student with their ID, as well as their room assignments. Students are responsible for remembering their student ID throughout the day. If a student writes an incorrect ID on their test, they may not receive a score.

• An information packet about the tournament, containing a schedule, map, and other relevant information.

• A voucher for pre-ordered t-shirts. This voucher can be redeemed at a table near the check-in area.

• A voucher for pre-ordered lunches, which can be redeemed during the lunch break in front of Dwinelle Hall.

Check-in closes promptly at 9:00 AM, so please be on time. If you arrive after this time, your team will be late to the Puzzle Round, which puts them at a great disadvantage.

What to pack

We suggest students bring the following items to BmMT:

• A backpack or small bag for carrying materials and swag
• Multiple pencils and erasers
• Lunch or money for lunch, if you didn't order it
• A water bottle to stay hydrated throughout the day
• Comfortable walking shoes (you'll be moving between buildings)
• Layers of clothing (temperatures can vary)

Scratch paper will be provided for all participants, so please do not bring your own.

Travel and Transportation

Parking can be found near campus at many locations. We recommend the following options, which are also highlighted on the map attached below:

• Telegraph-Channing Garage
• RSF Garage
• Underhill Parking
• Stadium Parking Garage
• Allston Way Garage
• Center Street Garage
• Lower Hearst Structure
• UNEX Lot

Have a backup parking garage planned, as we have had parking garages fill up in previous years.

Schedule of Events

* Tiebreaker qualifiers will be posted on the website, sent to coaches via email, and announced after Relay.

Room Assignments

Each team will be assigned a Testing Room and an Awards Room during check-in. Room assignments will be provided on the sticker sheet as well as emailed to all coaches, along with Team and Student IDs.

Students are responsible for finding the rooms that their tests are taking place in. A map is attached in the information packet provided at check-in.

Lunch

There will be a 1 hour lunch period in the middle of the day for students to get food. Pre-purchased lunches will be available for pick up in front of Dwinelle Hall. Many other options are available on the southern side of Berkeley campus.

Activities

Student Activities

After the Relay Round, we will be hosting student activities. These are optional activities that promote recreational math, and include the following:

⭐ Time Mix-up Puzzle Hunt by Hudson River Trading [Pauley Ballroom]

Ready to unleash your puzzle-solving skills? Join our puzzle hunt! You and a team of Time Un-mixers will embark on one of the adventures of all time and earn cool prizes along the way. Will you and your team save the clocks, or will you get stuck spinning your gears? No prior experience with puzzles is expected, just bring an open mind and your problem solving brain!

Float Your Boat: The Archimedes Challenge by Berkeley Society of Physics Students[Dwinelle 106, 109]

In 250 BC, Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy, noticing it in his bathtub and using it to prove the kings’ crowns were made of gold! Can you use it to keep heavy boats afloat? Come experiment with the physics that keeps everything from toy rafts to cargo ships above water.

Origami by Cal Origami [Dwinelle 246, 247]

Do you want to bring home a cute souvenir from BmMT? Come make your own origami polyhedra! We will be offering multiple paper patterns and instructions, and teaching from the basics of modular origami. No prior craft experience is needed!

Mathematician Mash [Dwinelle 145]

Test your math intuition in this fast-paced game inspired by the classic game show Family Feud! Teams will try to guess the most popular answers to math-themed questions. The goal isn’t just to be correct — it’s to think like everyone else and guess the most common answers. Work with your teammates, buzz in quickly, and see if your mathematical instincts can lead your team to the top!

Estimathon [Dwinelle 155]

Got wit and strategy? Come to our Estimathon®, a contest combining trivia, strategic planning, and sharp mathematical thinking. Teams of up to 3 will race against the clock to tackle a challenging set of 13 Fermi-style problems, testing their ability to think fast and outsmart the competition.

Plank Countdown [Dwinelle 182, 187]

Miss the excitement of the MATHCOUNTS® Countdown Round? Want to show off mental math in a countdown match... while planking? If you'd enjoy that exciting and silly experience, come join us for our Plank Countdown tournament!

Games Lounge [Dwinelle 258]

Looking for a place to chill out? Come to the Games Lounge! We’ll have a variety of games (and seats) for students, parents, and coaches to unwind after a day of testing.

Parent / Coach Activities

Between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, we will have a parent lounge in Dwinelle 155. Additionally, we will have the following activites for parents.

⭐ Po-Shen Loh Table (11 AM) [Dwinelle Hall]

A talk by Dr. Po-Shen Loh, mathematician and professor at Carnegie Mellon University, founder of LIVE, a revolutionary way to learn math online, and former coach of the US International Mathematical Olympiad team. Come join to hear his insights into math education!

A Closer Look at Problem Solving in Math Contests

by Isaac Li (9–11 AM) [Dwinelle 155]

What makes a math contest problem good? And how can math contests offer students a gateway to deep and compelling mathematical investigations? In this talk, curriculum developer Isaac Li will draw on his experiences as a mathlete and contest writer to explore how contests, at their best, can encourage students to persist through difficulty, approach problems more strategically, and develop agency over their own learning.

Isaac Li is a math curriculum developer at Art of Problem Solving. He has served as a test organizer for the Berkeley Math Tournament and contributed problems to the USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS), among other competitions.

Campus Tour (11 AM) [Dwinelle 155]

Join us on a tour of the beautiful UC Berkeley campus! Signups will be announced in the parent lounge, after Isaac Li's talk.

Awards Ceremony

The Awards Ceremony will take place simultaneously in multiple auditoriums. Organizations will be assigned a room at check-in. Teams attending Awards Ceremony must attend in the auditorium they are assigned, or else they may not receive their award on time.

Disqualification Information

Contestants will be immediately disqualified for any of the following reasons:

• Cheating (looking at another student’s paper, phone use, etc.)
• Using slurs
• Causing harm to others

Contestants will be disqualified after being given two warnings for any of the following reasons:

• Rowdy or disruptive behavior across teams or that disrupts entire room from testing
  • Includes: students that are talking to each other loudly/disturbing others around them while not aiming to
• Eating paper or throwing paper
• Entering other teams’ space (ex. crawling on the floor)

Our team is hard at work finalizing the remaining details of the event. If you have any other questions or concerns before the tournament, you can reach us at team@berkeley.mt.

We couldn't be more excited to see you at BmMT this year. We hope you are too!

~ BMT Coordinators