Grades
1–2
Basic
Puzzles in plain language, with almost no notation. Students practise working out what a question is asking before they work out the answer.
Targets
Math Kangaroo Levels 1–2
Saturdays 3 PM Pacific · Grades 1–8 · Cerritos, California
Kids who like math, and kids who don’t know they do yet.
Every class is taught by a high-school volunteer. Students work through four levels, two grades in each, toward Math Kangaroo and the AMC 8.
Warm-up · Novice · grades 3–4
A kangaroo starts at 0 on the number line. It hops +3, +3, −1, and then repeats that pattern over and over, forever.
Which of these will it never land on?
Pick an answer — we’ll show you how a student gets there.
The program
Four levels, two grades each
A student can start in first grade and finish on the AMC 8 without leaving the program. Each level targets the competition band that matches it.
Grades
3–4
Novice
Number patterns, logic, and the first geometry. This is the year students start having to explain how they got an answer, not only what it was.
Targets
Math Kangaroo Levels 3–4
Grades
5–6
Intermediate
Number theory, counting, and early algebra, alongside the first AMC 8 problems. Contest math stops resembling school math somewhere in this level.
Targets
Math Kangaroo Levels 5–6 · early AMC 8
Grades
7–8
Advanced
Full AMC 8 coverage: combinatorics, number theory, geometry, and proof-style reasoning. Students sit the real exam in January.
Targets
AMC 8 (primary) · Math Kangaroo Levels 7–8
How it works
What a year looks like
Each level runs a Year A and a Year B cycle, equal in difficulty and different in content. A student spends two years in a level and never repeats a lesson.
- Format
- Weekly Saturday-afternoon Zoom classes, 3 PM Pacific
- Year
- 27 Saturdays, August through mid-April
- Block
- 8 teaching sessions + 1 in-person benchmark test per block, three blocks a year
- Calendar
- Aligned to the ABC Unified School District calendar (Cerritos, CA)
One student, known by name
Classes stay small, and a single record follows each child — so a teacher always knows where they are and what comes next.
Every problem is solved before a student sees it
Problems are written in-house, then solved blind by a second volunteer who has to reach the same answer. A wrong answer key never reaches a child.
Two years in a level, no repeats
Each level runs a Year A and a Year B cycle — equal in difficulty, different in content — so a student is challenged across both of their grades.
Competitions
We run the exams ourselves
We are a registered Math Kangaroo center and are applying to host the AMC 8, so students can sit their exams in the room they learned in.
Math Kangaroo
Official centerWe are a registered Math Kangaroo center, which means we handle registration, proctoring, and hosting ourselves. Families from around Cerritos can sit the exam here whether or not their child takes our classes.
Thursday, March 18, 2027
AMC 8
ApplyingThe AMC 8 is what the Advanced level works toward all year. The exam runs as a window from January 21 to 27, and January 23 is already a class Saturday, so if our application to host is approved students sit it in the usual room with the teacher who prepared them.
Window: January 21–27, 2027
Key dates
Put these on your calendar
Math Kangaroo enrollment is the one deadline families act on — it closes on December 31 and does not reopen. The other two are the competitions themselves.
—days
Math Kangaroo student enrollment
Dec 31, 2026
Register your child to sit the exam at our center.
—days
AMC 8
Jan 23, 2027
Advanced and Intermediate. We’re applying to host it here.
—days
Math Kangaroo
Mar 18, 2027
Thursday, all levels. We host it, and the wider community can sit it here too.
—days
Annual Math Tournament
Mar 20, 2027
In-person finale for every level — team and individual rounds, prizes and awards.
Get involved
The program runs on volunteers
Teaching, problem-checking, and proctoring are all volunteer work. Donations cover the software, rooms, and competition fees that volunteering cannot.