News: Eligibility update (3 October 2024)

The BMO Executive Committee wishes to draw attention to three aspects of eligibility for IMO programme activities.

Hungary camp 2024/25

Invitations to the IMO winter camp in Hungary will continue to be issued based on the results of BMO1. However, from 2024 onwards, only pupils who have previously attended a BMO residential event (Oxford summer school, Cambridge spring selection camp, previous Hungary camp) will be eligible to attend the Hungary winter camp.

This change is partly necessitated by the timings of the marking weekend, and the deadline for confirming names on flight tickets.

The invitation policy to other events is unchanged. In particular, invitations to the main training and selection camp held in Cambridge in Spring 2025 will remain based on BMO (principally BMO2), with all participating pupils considered for an invitation.

Multiple countries’ IMO programmes

Increasing numbers of pupils have asked about the rules regarding participation in other countries’ olympiad activities. The key rules are, in outline, that in a given academic year any of:

1. Representing another country at any international maths competition;
2. Taking another country’s Team Selection Test;
3. Attending an event or programme (in person or online) that includes an IMO Team Selection Test (even if not sitting the paper itself);

means a pupil will not be eligible for the UK IMO team of that academic year, and will not be eligible for any training or selection events within that year’s UK IMO programme.

Pupils who expect to take a minor part in other countries’ olympiad programmes but wish to remain eligible for the UK IMO team are reminded to be cautious, and to contact bmo-chair@ukmt.org.uk if they are unsure whether their activities comply with this policy.

A longer version of this policy is available.

Eligibility for EGMO team

The UK participates in the annual European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad in April. The team is selected from female pupils who score highly on that year’s BMO (principally BMO2). In particular, candidates and their schools should be aware that leaving the gender box blank on the form may lead to a pupil missing out on selection.

Previous news item: UK Mathematical Olympiad for Girls (27 September 2024).