2026 mathleague.org Elementary National Championship
June 13th, Texas A&M University
mathleague.org is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the thirteenth annual National Championship for elementary school students on June 13th, 2026 in College Station, Texas. Although we wish we could have held the contest in Houston proper, the FIFA World Cup match being held in Houston that weekend has pushed hotel prices well beyond what we were comfortable asking participants to accept. The contest will be held at Texas A&M University. 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. As always, we plan to display a picture slideshow on the projector prior to the formal start of the banquet. If you have pictures from contests this year that you would be willing to share, please email them to us at pictures@mathleague.org.
Once again, we have bundled several items together for student participants at the National Championship. Students will receive a contest registration ($30 value), a banquet ticket ($59 value), a contest t-shirt ($20 value), a book of this year's tests ($50 value), and a 2026 Nationals mathleague totebag ($10 value), for a total value of $169. What is changing this year is how we sell participation packages. In order to maximize the number of students we can accommodate at the banquet and to make sure every student is accompanied by an adult at the banquet, we will be giving priority in package sales to complete teams and nearly complete teams:
- From the beginning of our State Championships until 8pm Central on May 12, the only package available for sale will be a Platinum Package consisting of four student registrations and one adult banquet ticket for $499.
- Starting at 8pm Central on May 12, we will open up sales (subject to availability) for a Gold Package consisting of three student registrations and one adult banquet ticket for $389.
- Starting at 8pm Central on May 14, we will open up sales (subject to availability) for a Silver Package consisting of two student registrations and one adult banquet ticket for $279.
- Starting at 8pm Central on May 16, we will open up sales (subject to availability) for a Bronze Package consisting of one student registration and one adult banquet ticket for $169.
- Starting at 8pm Central on May 18, we will open up sales (subject to availability) for individual banquet tickets for $59.
- Individual student registrations may be purchased at any time for $110 but students will only be issued a banquet ticket if the registration includes the name of an adult (teacher, coach, or parent) from their school who will accompany the student to the banquet and who has already purchased a banquet ticket.
- All participants who purchase a package together will be seated together at the banquet, and students who purchase an individual registration will be seated with the adult they indicated on their registration form. Platinum Package participants will be assigned banquet seating closest to the stage, followed by Gold, Silver, and Bronze packages.
- Sales of all packages will conclude once the banquet has reached capacity, and all sales of packages, student registrations, and banquet tickets are final. Please note that this year we do not anticipate running out of space at the banquet, but we are implementing this system now so that we will be prepared in the future when capacity becomes an issue.
- Groups with more than four students or more than one adult are encouraged to assess how many students they wish to register and how many non-participant banquet tickets they wish to purchase and plan to purchase the packages they need as they become available.
For those of you who will be participating online, obviously you won't be able to enjoy the food at the banquet, but for your $110 registration 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. Just like last year, all students will receive this year's middle school test book by default, but you may choose this year's elementary school test book if you prefer. Please note however that if you request the elementary school book, it will be delivered in August after the elementary school International Championship is finished.
Speaking of the International Championship, any student who scored 200 points or more out of 300 at the State Championship and is willing to commit to attending the International Championship in person may lock in their seat in May. More details about pre-qualification are available here, and eligible students may register for the International Championship here. Please note that pre-qualification is ONLY for students who will be attending the International Championship in person in Bali, as we want to give them as much time as possible to make travel plans. Students who do not register through the pre-qualification process will go through the regular qualification process and may sign up for the online or in-person test if they place in the top ten for their grade at the National Championship. Remember that just like the National Championship, the team test will only be administered in person for the International Championship, so online participants will only take the indiviudal tests.
Student Supervision
Only students, mathleague.org staff, and pre-approved volunteers will be allowed in the testing room. 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. Students will only be admitted to the testing room if accompanied by an adult and will only be released from the testing room to the adult who dropped them off; there will be a drop-off and pick-up form in the check-in packet that will be used to keep track of participants and make sure they are adequately supervised at all times. The university also requires us to have a liability and medical waiver on file signed by a parent of each student; the waiver is located here and must be submitted at check-in.
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. 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 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 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.
Please note that there are THREE steps to successfully enrolling students in this event, all of which begin on this page: (1) Register for the contest; (2) Fill out the survey form; (3) Complete payment.
(1) Register for the contest
Every student who registers for in-person testing 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 fill out the survey form. Please note that space at the contest is limited, so please register as soon as you are able. If the contest reaches capacity or if you are unable to make it to College Station for the contest, please scroll to the bottom of this page for information about how to join the contest over Zoom.
(2) Fill out the survey form
Once a student is registered and you have their ID number, please complete this form to let us know what type of meal, book, and t-shirt they choose and the name of the adult who will be responsible for them at the contest and/or banquet. Remember that unaccompanied children are not allowed at the banquet, so in-person participants must include the name of an adult who has already purchased a banquet ticket and with whom the student will be seated at the banquet. Students paying for a registration without the name of an adult who has purchased a banquet ticket will not be given a banquet ticket and will not be allowed to attend the banquet. Once you have filled out the survey form please return to this page to make payment.
(3) Complete payment
After you have filled out the survey form, select an option below to pay for your registration. Please note that because we are making purchases in advance based on the number of students registered and banquet tickets sold, we will be unable to issue refunds after payment is received. If a student is unable to attend the event after submitting payment, they may choose to move to the online testing option or designate another qualified student to take their place.
Platinum Package (4 students and 1 adult) - $499:
Gold Package (3 students and 1 adult) - $389:
Silver Package (2 students and 1 adult) - $279:
Bronze Package (1 student and 1 adult) - $169:
Individual student payment - $110:
Transportation and Lodging
Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to the venue and lodging. If you are bringing a car to the university, you will want to park at the Gene Stallings Boulevard Garage to reach the campus hotel and the testing center. We have reserved a block of rooms at the hotel on campus and strongly recommend booking there for the weekend due to its proximity to check-in and testing. Please book through our link here to take advantage of the special rate we have arranged. Our group rate will only be available until May 26 or until the rooms are sold out, whichever comes first, so be sure to make your reservations early.
If you are flying, you should plan to fly in no later than June 12th and leave no earlier than June 14th. The closest major airports are Bush Intercontinental (IAH), Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS), and Houston Hobby (HOU); be sure to check prices into all three airports because you may find that flights into Austin are cheaper due to the World Cup traffic coming into Houston that weekend. There is a small airport in College Station (CLL), but flights into that airport are often much more expensive unless you use airline miles to pay for your tickets.
Testing
Written testing will consist of Number Sense, Target, Sprint, 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. Coaches are asked to check in and pick up student materials Friday night between 5:00pm and 6:30pm to avoid delays on the day of the contest; please bring a waiver for each student signed by a parent (see above) as you will not be able to pick up a student's check-in package without this waiver. Details regarding the Friday check-in will be emailed to participating schools the week of the contest.
Testing will be in the Memorial Student Center right across the street from the campus hotel; we will announce room assignments at check-in. Participants may begin arriving at 9:30am on June 13 and should be seated by 10:00am. Testing will start as soon as possible after 10:00am and should conclude by 12:30pm. Students will then have the afternoon free to rest or explore the area.
If your students 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 students.
Awards
Prizes will be given to the top ten students in each grade level, as well as to the top five teams in each division, and will be handed out at an awards banquet on the evening of June 13th. The awards banquet will run from 7:00pm to 9:00pm, with doors opening at 6:30pm. The banquet will be held at the Brazos County Expo Complex a short drive from campus; a map is available here and plenty of free parking is available on site. Each student who registers for the in-person contest will have a banquet ticket included in their registration fee; if your school or family wishes to purchase more banquet tickets, you may purchase them on this page starting at 8pm Central on May 18. There will be a link below this paragraph that 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.
To buy extra banquet tickets, fill out this form (please note that minors will not be admitted to the banquet without an adult accompanying them):
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 (or any dietary requirements not covered in the options above) may wish to consider bringing food of their own. 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 for the top students attending the contest in person, and we will also hold a Countdown round immediately after testing for the top students attending the contest online. We will be awarding a scholarship to the winner of the in-person Countdown round, the winner of the online Countdown round, and the student with the overall top individual score from the written contest; scholarship details and a description of how students are selected for the Countdown round can be found at this link.
Preparation
Practice Contest Problem Sets are available for purchase at the mathleague.org store if you would like to prepare for the contest (one Contest Problem Set 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 to take the Number Sense, 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. Follow the instructions above to register to take this contest online.
Congratulations to everyone who qualified for this event; we look forward to seeing you on June 13th!
