BMT Logo

Berkeley Math Tournament


BMT 2025 November 8 Tournament Day Logistics (updated!)

Monday, October 20, 2025

To all coaches and students,

Thanks for signing up for BMT! We're excited to have you on board. Please read this email in its entirety as it contains the tournament day logistics.

Recent Updates to This Page

November 7, 2025: Swapped activity room assignments for Pico Gilman's talk (now in Dwinelle 155) and Integration Bee (now in Dwinelle 145). Added specific location for Redstone Engineering activity (OCF on first floor of MLK). Removed signup form requirement for Redstone Engineering.

October 31, 2025: Added BART transportation recommendations in the Travel and Transportation section. We encourage teams to take BART if convenient to avoid parking challenges and traffic. Additionally, we've updated the campus map and added a parking maps to help you navigate to the tournament venues.

Registration Information

Phase 2 Registration has now concluded. Seats are still available for purchase for $25 until October 31. T-shirts are no longer available for purchase. Lunch is available for purchase until October 31. The cutoff date for joining our hotel room block with Hotel Shattuck Plaza is October 31.

Visit our registration details page for information on these options.

Event/Registration Details

General Reminders

During BMT, 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, which you can identify by their pale pink BMT shirt.

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

Arrival and Check-in

Online check-in available

From November 5 to November 7, coaches can optionally begin the check-in process online on ContestDojo. We recommend organizations that are ready to check in to do so online before Saturday.

If you check-in online, you must still show up at your assigned check-in location to pick up materials.

Check-in will happen from 7:40 AM to 8:45 AM in the following rooms:

  • Dwinelle 145 — Coaches who haven't checked in online should go here.
  • Dwinelle 155 — Coaches who 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 bag containing any pre-ordered t-shirts for the organization.

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

Check in closes promptly at 8:45 AM, so please be on time. If you arrive after this time, your team will be late to the power round, which puts them at a great disadvantage.

What to pack

We suggest students bring the following items to BMT:

  • 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

If convenient, we recommend taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to campus. The Downtown Berkeley BART station is located just a few blocks from campus and provides easy access to the tournament venues. From the station, it's approximately a 10-minute walk to Dwinelle Hall. Taking BART can help you avoid parking challenges and traffic, especially during peak hours.

If you would prefer to drive, 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

Annotated Parking Map

Schedule of Events

Time Event Location
7:40 – 8:45 AM Check-in (coaches only) After arrival, coaches should proceed to one of the two auditoriums in Dwinelle Hall, depending on whether they have already checked in online or not.
Check-in (if haven’t checked in online) — Dwinelle 145
Materials Pick-up (if checked in online) — Dwinelle 155
8:45 – 10:45 AM Power Round Classrooms in Dwinelle Hall, Wheeler Hall, Pauley Auditorium, and VLSB.
Students will be assigned a room at check-in.
10:45 AM – 1:15 PM General and Focus Tests Please choose a room at random that has your set of tests.
General Test — Pauley Auditorium, VLSB 2050
Algebra & Geometry — Dwinelle 79, 83, 87, 88, 105, 106, 109, 130, 179, 182, 183, 187, 258, 259
Algebra & Discrete — Dwinelle 223, 228, 229, 234, 235, 242, 243, 246, 247, 250, 251, 254, 255
Algebra & Calculus — Wheeler 20, 24, 30, 120, 124, 130
Discrete & Geometry — Wheeler 102, 104, 108, 200
Discrete & Calculus — Wheeler 202, 204
Geometry & Calculus — Wheeler 222
1:15 – 2:45 PM Lunch
Free Sponsor Swag
Extra T-Shirt Sales
Disputes (–1:45)
Pre-purchased Lunch Pick-up — Outside Dwinelle Hall
Free Sponsor Swag Pick-up — Outside Dwinelle Hall
T-shirt Sales (while supplies last) — Outside Dwinelle Hall
Problem Disputes (Power, Individual) — Dwinelle 234
2:45 – 4:30 PM Guts Round Auditoriums in Dwinelle Hall, Pauley Auditorium, and VLSB.
Students will be assigned a room at check-in.
Students must arrive and enter as an entire team.
4:30 – 6:00 PM Activities
Disputes (–5:00)
Tiebreakers
Activities — Please see activities descriptions below.
Problem Disputes (Guts) — Dwinelle 234
Tiebreakers (by invite only*) — Dwinelle 219
6:00 – 7:00 PM Awards The Awards Ceremony will take place simultaneously in Dwinelle Hall, Pauley Ballroom, and VLSB. You will be assigned an awards room at check-in.
Going to a different room may result in your awards being delayed.

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

A campus map can be found at the bottom of this page.

Testing Rooms

Each team will be assigned a room for their Power Round, Guts Round, and Awards Ceremony 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.

For Focus and General tests, students may go to any of the rooms assigned to the test combination they selected. Room assignments for each test combination are listed on the tournament guide.

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

Lunch is available for purchase until October 31, 2025.

Activities

Student Activities

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

⭐ Bitcoin, Hacking, and Fermat's Last Theorem by Pico Gilman [Dwinelle 155]

What is the relationship between bitcoin, large number factorization, and Fermat's Last Theorem? In this talk, third year undergraduate MIT student Pico Gilman will explain how to efficiently count the number of points on elliptic curves using C++! No knowledge of elliptic curves or coding is needed.

Pico Gilman is a 2025 Barry Goldwater scholar and 6th place for the Putnam Mathematical Competition, studying number theory and elliptic curves at MIT.

⭐ Hamster Rescue Team Puzzle Hunt by Hudson River Trading [Pauley Ballroom]

Ready to unleash your puzzle-solving skills and embark on a whisker-twitching adventure? Join HRT's Hamster Rescue Team — a puzzle hunt where you and your fellow Hamster Rescuers will work together to save adorable hamsters in need, and earn cool prizes along the way! Can your team puzzle its way to hamster-saving glory, or will you get stuck spinning your wheels? Come find out at HRT — your furry friends are counting on you!

Origami by Cal Origami [VLSB 2040]

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

Float Your Boat: The Archimedes Challenge by Society of Physics Students [Wheeler 102, 108]

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?

Estimathon [VLSB 2050, 2060]

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.

Integration Bee [Dwinelle 145]

Compete head to head against the best integrators around! Students will face off in a tournament style bracket, solving difficult integrals involving some clever tricks, to determine who will be the champion of all integrators.

Plank Countdown [Wheeler 120, 124, 126, 130]

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!

Fraudulent Math [Wheeler 204, 202]

Attention all students, mathematics is under attack by people who claim that we need "rigor" and "logic" to justify our answers. Join us for an event of Fraudulent Math, where we will compete to see who can come up with the most outlandish, mind bending proofs of false statements and who can create impossible constructions.

Redstone Engineering [Additional Registration Required]

Tired of your calculator? Build digital circuits to compute the Fibonacci sequence using Minecraft redstone, also touching upon the basics of computer architecture! No prior computer knowledge is needed, though familiarity with Minecraft controls is recommended. Hosted in UC Berkeley's Open Computing Facility (OCF) on the first floor of MLK.

Parent Activities

Between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM, we will have a parent lounge in Dwinelle 155. Additionally, we will have the following activites for parents.

⭐ An Iconic IMO Problem and How I Came to the U.S. (9 AM – 11 AM) by Zvezdelina Stankova [Dwinelle 155]

We're honored to welcome Professor Zvezdelina Stankova from UC Berkeley's Department of Mathematics as our guest speaker. Professor Stankova is an International Math Olympiad (IMO) medalist, former coach of the USA team, founder of the Berkeley Math Circle, and co-founder of the Bay Area Math Olympiad (BAMO). She is an expert in the theory of permutation patterns and has inspired generations of young mathematicians through her teaching and outreach.

⭐ Bitcoin, Hacking, and Fermat's Last Theorem (4:30 PM – 6:00 PM) by Pico Gilman [Dwinelle 155]

What is the relationship between bitcoin, large number factorization, and Fermat's Last Theorem? In this talk, third year undergraduate MIT student Pico Gilman will explain how to efficiently count the number of points on elliptic curves using C++! No knowledge of elliptic curves or coding is needed.

Pico Gilman is a 2025 Barry Goldwater scholar and 6th place for the Putnam Mathematical Competition, studying number theory and elliptic curves at MIT.

Campus Tours (11 AM) [Dwinelle 155]

We will be holding campus tours of UC Berkeley during the day, around 11 AM. Signups will happen during the day, and will be announced in the parent lounge.

Guts Viewing Room (2:45 – 4:30 PM) [VLSB 2040]

Come watch the Guts Round be scored live! See the leaderboard update in real-time as teams race to solve problems and sprint to submit their answers. Cheer on your favorite teams as they compete for the top spot in this fast-paced, high-energy round!

Awards

The Awards Ceremony will take place simultaneously in Dwinelle 145, Dwinelle 155, Pauley Ballroom, and VLSB 2050. You will be assigned an awards 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.

Campus Map

Annotated Campus Map


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 BMT this year. We hope you are too!

~ BMT Coordinators


BMT Logo
Hosted by the OCF

We are a student group acting independently of the University of California. We take full responsibility for our organization and this web site.