2026 mathleague.org Middle School National Championship
April 11, NASA Gilruth Center
mathleague.org is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the 11th annual National Championship for middle school students on April 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. The contest will be held at the Gilruth Center on the campus of NASA's Johnson Space Center. A map is available here. We recognize that some of you may be unable to travel to the contest site, so we will offer an online option to participate as well. Please see below for information about all aspects of the contest. If you need to contact us with questions that are not addressed on this page, you may email us at customercare@mathleague.org. We plan to display a picture slideshow on the projector prior to the start of the awards banquet. If you have pictures from contests this year that you would be willing to share, please email them to us at media@mathleague.org.
Once again we have bundled several items together for an all-inclusive deal of $109 to participate in the National Championship. For this fee you will receive a contest registration ($30 value), a banquet ticket ($49 value), a contest t-shirt ($20 value), a book of this year's tests ($40 value), and a 2026 Nationals mathleague totebag ($10 value), for a total value of $149. We also offer a $149 package that is identical, except for the fact that it includes two banquet tickets. For those of you who will be participating online, obviously you won't be able to enjoy the food at the banquet, but you will receive all the rest of the benefits plus we will cover the shipping cost of your t-shirt, book, totebag, and any awards you win. Students will be able to choose between this year's middle school test book and this year's high school test book; we offer this choice because some of our students have indicated they would find the high school book more relevant for future study. Please note however that if you request the high school book, it will be delivered in August after the high school International Championship is finished.
Speaking of the International Championship, we do not hold an International Championship for middle school, so instead we will be inviting the top ten students in each grade level at the middle school National Championship to compete at the high school National Championship. From there, students will have the opportunity to qualify on to the International Championship for their grade level if they do well enough.
For our students in Northern California, we are aware that BmMT is also scheduled for April 11. As we did last year, we announced the date of this year's National Championship long before BmMT announced their date, so we trust that the BmMT organizers will be as accommodating as we always have been when we schedule a contest that conflicts with an already-existing one. If you would like to participate in both contests, we encourage you to reach out to BmMT and ask for help in making that possible. As of March 1, we have not been notified of any testing schedule for BmMT, but individual testing for our contest will almost certainly be finished by 9:30 Pacific time and may be finished by 9:00.
Student Supervision
Only students, mathleague.org staff, and pre-approved volunteers will be allowed in the testing room prior to the banquet start time. No one will be permitted to remain in the hallway outside the testing room during the testing. We will set up a video feed so parents and coaches who are not in the room can watch the testing and the awards banquet.
Every student must be registered by an adult who includes on the registration form an emergency phone number at which the adult will be reachable throughout the contest. Unlike most in-person contests, adults responsible for participants are not required to remain on the premises as long as they can be reached by phone at a moment's notice. Adults who are interested in volunteering to proctor or grade tests should contact us for more details and training.
Participation
In each state where mathleague.org held a State Championship in 2026, certain high-scoring students are qualified to participate in the National Championship; details for how to qualify can be found here. In states where no State Championship was held, any student who met the qualification criteria at a qualifying contest will be eligible to participate in the National Championship. Students may register for the contest by clicking the link below. Registration for this contest is only open to students who qualify or who are selected off the waiting list to replace qualified students who are unable to attend. To ensure a seat at the contest and a meal at the awards banquet, qualified students must register by April 1; after April 1, if space is available, students will be invited from the waiting list to replace qualified students who have not yet registered. To join the waiting list, please send an email to customercare@mathleague.org indicating which students from your school would like to attend the contest if space is available.
To see a list of students from your State Championship who have qualified for the National Championship, go to our results page, select your State Championship from the drop-down menu, and click the "qualifiers to next level" link. Contact us at the email address above if your school had two or more students at the State Championship in the same grade with the same initials and you need help determining which student(s) qualified for the National Championship. Also be sure to let us know if you find any mistakes in the list so we can make sure everyone who qualified for the National Championship shows up on the list of qualifiers. If your state did not hold a State Championship, you can see who is qualified from your state by clicking on the results link for each of the qualifying contests that took place in your state this year.
Every student who registers for this contest must provide the name and phone number of an adult who will physically bring the student to the testing room, will physically pick the student up from the testing room at the end of testing, and will be reachable by phone during the event in case of an emergency. This adult is referred to as the "registering adult" on the registration page.
Click below to register for this contest; once you have registered and have an ID number please return to this page to make your payment. Ignore any payment information mentioned in your registration confirmation and instead pay for the contest through the Paypal link below. Note: Registration and payment deadline for qualifiers is April 1. After April 1, additional participants will be accepted only if space is available. Please note that space at the contest is limited, so please register as soon as you are able. If the contest venue reaches capacity or if you are unable to make it to Houston for the contest, please scroll to the bottom of this page for information about how to join the contest over Zoom.
After you have registered and you have an ID number, enter the ID number below to pay for your registration. If you have multiple students you will need to return to this page to add each student separately, but you will be able to pay for all students at once. Please note that because we are making purchases in advance based on the number of students registered, we will be unable to issue refunds after payment is received. If you are unable to attend the event after submitting payment, you may choose to move to the online testing option or designate another qualified student to take your place.
Transportation and Lodging
Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to the venue and lodging. If you are bringing a car to the contest site, free parking is available right outside the venue. If you need help identifying nearby hotels, click here for a list of hotels we were given.
Testing
Written testing will consist of Sprint, Target, and Team rounds, followed by a Countdown round at the awards banquet (see below for more details). Participants are expected to bring their own pencils and calculators.
Testing will be in the banquet hall of the Gilruth Center; there is a breezeway right outside the entrance so that drivers may drop off participants under the roof in case it is raining. Participants may begin arriving at 9:00am on April 11 and should be seated by 9:30am. Testing will start as soon as possible after 9:30am and should conclude by 12:00pm. Students will then have the afternoon free to rest, explore Houston, or join one of our recommended activities.
If you have a student who cannot test in the designated test center at the designated time for religious or health reasons, please contact us for more information about how we can accommodate the affected student(s).
Afternoon Activities
Students may enjoy the afternoon however they wish, but here are a few recommended activities you might be interested in:
- Space Center Houston, located adjacent to the Johnson Space Center, is a must-see for anyone visiting southeast Houston. If you aren't already planning a trip to Space Center Houston on Friday or Sunday, we highly recommend a visit on Saturday afternoon. If you are a member of a science museum in your home city, you may be eligible for free admission.
- The Kemah Boardwalk is a small amusement park on Galveston Bay at the end of Nasa Road 1. Admission is free, and you can purchase single-ride tickets or a full day pass. The boardwalk will be hosting live Zydeco concerts throughout Saturday and Sunday if you're interested in some local music (as Tim often says, Houston is the biggest city in Louisiana).
- There is a Disc golf course just outside the Gilruth Center; you can purchase an official mathleague.org flying disc after testing in the morning or bring your own discs if you have them.
- And of course we'll have a space set up to play mathleague.org/cards ("slashcards") during the afternoon. Starter decks and booster packs will be available for purchase if you don't already have them, and we'll have tables in the testing room set up for free play from 2pm to 4pm. We might even organize a tournament if there is enough interest.
Awards
Prizes will be given to the top ten students in each grade level, as well as to the top six teams, and will be handed out at an awards banquet on the evening of April 11. The awards banquet will run from 6:30pm to 8:00pm, with doors opening and food service starting at 6:00pm. The banquet will be held in the same room as the testing. Each student who registers for the contest will have the ability to purchase one or two banquet tickets; if your school or family wishes to purchase more banquet tickets than two per student, you may purchase them at the link below. This link will remain active as long as there are available banquet tickets; once the banquet is sold out, this link will be removed and it will no longer be possible to purchase a banquet ticket.
Buy extra banquet tickets here
Every person attending the banquet (student, parent, coach, sibling, the President of Mathleague, everyone) will require a ticket. We will offer standard, vegetarian, vegan, and halal meals; be sure to select the correct type of meal when you register for the banquet. Attendees who require a Kosher meal should contact us to arrange a plan if the vegetarian or vegan meal will not be adequate. We are unable to guarantee an allergen-free preparation environment, so participants with severe allergies may wish to take this into consideration. Please note that every banquet attendee is required to have a ticket regardless of whether they plan to eat the food served at the venue.
The awards banquet will include a live Countdown round. We will be awarding a scholarship to the winner of the Countdown round; details and a description of how students are selected for the Countdown round can be found at this link.
Preparation
Practice tests are available for purchase at the mathleague.org store if you would like to prepare for the contest (one set of tests is available for free download on our site as well).
Online Participants
For those of you who are qualified but unable to attend the National Championship in person, you may register below to take the Sprint and Target rounds online; please note that the Team test will NOT be administered online. We offer the online testing opportunity to individual students in recognition of the fact that not every family has the financial resources to travel to a National Championship. Groups that wish to compete as a school team and be eligible for team awards will be expected to work together to provide financial support to send at least two students to take the Team test in person. Other than not offering a Team test, we have designed the experience to be as similar to the in-person experience as possible: You will pay the same registration fee as the in-person participants, you will take the test at the same time as the in-person participants, you will receive the same perks as the in-person participants (except, as noted above, instead of a banquet ticket you will receive free shipping of your merchandise and any awards you win), you will be invited to watch the awards banquet, and if selected you will be able to compete in the Countdown Round. The testing interface will be the same as we've used all school year, but we will be instituting very strict monitoring requirements to ensure the highest levels of testing security. The online testing option is intended only for students who are able and willing to adhere to the testing requirements and who are sufficiently familiar with our online testing platform that they will be able to navigate the online platform with no difficulty and emergency support only.
Online participants need to be prepared for the following measures: (1) Strict enforcement of all rules listed on our website regarding online contests. (2) Visual verification of chaperone presence prior to testing and at any subsequent point we deem necessary. (3) Use of student's real name in the Zoom room. (4) No classroom setups, i.e. every student must be logged into Zoom on their own device. (5) Specific camera positioning requirements that will require a Zoom-connected camera recording from over the student's right shoulder. (6) Local recording of audio at student's location. (7) Pre-contest verification of student's ability to record audio, position camera correctly, and log into our contest website.
Online participants will be required to take the test on a computer (not a phone or tablet).
By registering for the online contest: (1) You acknowledge the inherent risks associated with competing online, including technical failures on the part of the user, Zoom, or mathleague.org. (2) You accept responsibility for following all instructions both written and verbal that mathleague.org delivers regarding administration of the online contest. (3) You accept any consequences that may arise from any of these risk factors or failure to follow instructions, including the possibility of scores not being recorded. You may register using the form below; once you have registered and have an ID number please return to this page to make your payment. Ignore any payment information mentioned in your registration confirmation and instead pay for the contest through the Paypal link in the "Participation" section above.
Congratulations to everyone who qualified for this event; we look forward to seeing you on April 11!
