Frequently Asked Questions

Registration is handled through ContestDojo. To register:

1. An adult (coach, parent, or guardian) creates a coach account on ContestDojo.
2. The coach creates an organization (e.g., your school or club name), registers the organization for an event, and receives an organization join code.
3. Students create their own ContestDojo accounts and join the organization using that code.
4. The coach purchases seats and assigns students to a team.

If you are unfamiliar with ContestDojo, please read our ContestDojo Guide.

Yes! Any adult (parent, guardian, tutor, or otherwise) can register as a "coach" on ContestDojo. The coach is simply the adult responsible for the team. You do not need to be affiliated with a school. When ContestDojo asks you to create an "organization," this is just a label: you can use your family name, a club name, or anything you'd like.

We strongly recommend participating as part of a team — much of the tournament experience is collaborative, and several rounds are team-based. If your child doesn't have teammates yet, you can use the Teammate Finder spreadsheet to connect with other coaches. The Teammate Finder is listed under the "How to Register" section for each event.

You can complete your registration and purchase seats before finding teammates. If you later need to move students between organizations, email team@berkeley.mt and we can help.

Students are allowed to register and compete individually or in small teams. However, we strongly recommend forming a full team if possible — several rounds are team-based, and teams smaller than the recommended size (at least 4 for BMT, at least 3 for BmMT) will be disadvantaged by our scoring model. You can use the Teammate Finder spreadsheet to connect with other coaches looking for teammates. The Teammate Finder is listed under the "How to Register" section for each event.

Yes! We want our tournaments to be accessible to all students. If your team needs financial assistance, please contact team@berkeley.mt with the number of seats you need waived after you have created a coach account and an organization on ContestDojo, and registered your organization for the event you will attend.

We provide refunds under some circumstances. If you need to cancel a registration, please email team@berkeley.mt. Since the seats you purchased on ContestDojo belong to your organization, you can swap students in and out of your teams without contacting us. However, if you have already checked in online for an in-person event, you cannot change your team rosters after check-in.

Online and in-person tournaments are separate registrations on ContestDojo. If you accidentally registered for the wrong one, email team@berkeley.mt and we can help you cancel and switch.

Students should bring pencils, erasers, and any permitted tools (protractors, rulers, compasses). Blank scratch paper will be provided. Do not bring calculators, graph paper, or other reference materials. We also recommend bringing a water bottle and any personal items you may need for the day.

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.

Yes. Every team must have an adult chaperone present on tournament day. The chaperone is typically the person who registered as the "coach" on ContestDojo, but any responsible adult may serve as the chaperone. We ask that organizations provide at least one adult chaperone for every two teams.

We do not provide travel or parking for students — coaches should arrange their own travel logistics.

If convenient, we recommend taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to avoid parking challenges and traffic. The Downtown Berkeley BART station is a 10-minute walk from the tournament venues, and is a good option for those commuting from San Francisco or the East Bay.

If you prefer to drive, there are a number of parking garages near campus, including:

• Telegraph-Channing Garage (recommended — cheaper than campus garages and free up to an hour)
• Underhill Garage
• RSF Garage
• Stadium Parking Garage
• Lower Hearst Structure
• Allston Way Garage
• Center Street Garage

More options are listed on the UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation website. Detailed parking and campus maps are included in the logistics post for each event.

Past tests and solutions are available on our Resources page. We also provide an acceptable answer formats document and common notions document that all students should review before the tournament.

BMT is open to any student in grade 12 or below, including advanced middle school students. Students do not have to be local to the Bay Area, California, or the U.S. to participate. Teams may have up to 6 students.

BMT consists of three rounds:

1. Power Round (90 min) — a proof-based team round centered around a single topic. No prior background in the topic is expected.
2. Individual Round — students choose either two Focus Tests (60 min each, subject-specific) or the General Test (90 min, all subjects).
3. Guts Round (75 min) — a team round where problems are given in sets of 3 and scored live.

See the event page for full details on format and scoring.

Each student chooses either two Focus Tests (60 min each, subject-specific: Algebra, Geometry, Discrete, Calculus) or the General Test (90 min, covering all subjects). Focus Tests are harder and may require knowledge or problem solving techniques not commonly taught in high school classes. They do count for more toward your team's score.

We recommend most students take the General Test unless they have tried past Focus Tests from our archive and feel comfortable with the difficulty. If the Focus Tests feel prohibitively difficult, take the General Test; if the General Test doesn't provide the challenge you're looking for, consider a focus pair.

Team scores are based on a weighted combination of Power Round (30%), Individual Round (40%), and Guts Round (30%) scores. If a team has fewer than 4 members, scores of 0 are added for the missing spots. Taking the General Test counts for half as many individual points as the Focus Tests.

BmMT is open to any student in grade 8 or below, including advanced elementary school students. Students do not have to be local to the Bay Area, California, or the U.S. to participate. Teams may have up to 5 students.

BmMT consists of four rounds:

1. Puzzle Round (75 min) — a team round with a variety of mathematical challenges designed to promote inductive reasoning and lateral thinking.
2. Individual Round (60 min) — 20 short-answer questions covering algebra, geometry, counting, probability, and number theory.
3. Team Round (60 min) — 20 short-answer questions worked on as a team.
4. Relay Round (40 min) — 20 problems where some answers depend on prior answers in the relay.

See the event page for full details on format and scoring.

Team scores are based on a weighted combination of Puzzle (20%), Individual (40%), Team (30%), and Relay (10%) scores. If a team has fewer than 3 members, scores of 0 are added for the missing spots.

Both BMT and BmMT offer online versions for remote participation. For BMT, there may also be Satellite competitions held through our partners across the globe. Check the event pages for the latest dates and details.

Score reports are typically available on ContestDojo after the tournament. Results slides are posted on our website. If you have a question about your score, email team@berkeley.mt.

For each individual test, Honorable Mention is awarded to the top 50%, Distinguished Honorable Mention to the top 20%, and the top 10 scorers are recognized. For team rounds and overall team scores, the top 10 teams are recognized.

We do not offer participation certificates.

For in-person tournaments, awards are physically presented at the closing ceremony. For online tournaments, we provide official rankings for top-scoring teams, but there are no physical awards.