Intermediate maths challenge practice papers
Free papers in the intermediate challenge's shape, with every answer and its working. Print one for a timed hour, or sit a new one online and see the marks straight away.
Pick a paper
Year 9
A first try for a strong Year 9: the junior challenge's hardest kinds, then the intermediate's.
Year 10
The challenge at its own level: number theory, algebra and counting, the last ten hard.
Year 11
The top year: the hardest algebra and counting in the last ten.
How the challenge works
- Questions
- 25, each with five choices, A to E
- Time
- 60 minutes
- Marks
- 5 each for questions 1 to 15, 6 each for 16 to 25: 135 in all
- Wrong answers
- Some papers have taken 1 or 2 marks off for a wrong answer to questions 16 to 25, so check the rules printed on the paper. Our marking takes nothing off.
- Allowed
- Rough paper only: no calculator, squared paper or measuring instruments
- Who sits it
- Year 11 and below in England and Wales, S4 and below in Scotland, Year 12 and below in Northern Ireland
Schools enter their pupils, and the challenge is sat in school early in the spring term. The questions are in rough order of difficulty, and nobody is expected to finish: the last five stretch the strongest pupils.
Answers and working
Every printed paper above ends with its answers and the working for each one. Online, your first finished paper shows the answers to its first ten questions; full answers for every online paper will come with our UK practice packs.
Questions parents ask
- What is the intermediate maths challenge?
- A national maths competition for pupils in Year 11 and below, run by the UK Mathematics Trust and sat in school. It rewards problem solving more than speed, and the top scorers win certificates and a place in the follow-on olympiad and kangaroo rounds.
- Are these the real past papers?
- No. Every question here is written by us, in the challenge's published shape. Past papers belong to the UK Mathematics Trust, and we are not connected with it.
- How should my child practise?
- Sit one paper in a quiet hour with no calculator, then go through every question missed with the working. The later questions reward patience: try small cases, look for a pattern, and work backwards from the choices.
- Is it worth guessing?
- Check the rules printed on the paper your child sits. Where nothing is taken off, answer every question. Where marks come off late in the paper, answer the ones you can work out and rule out choices before you guess.