Four levels, two years in each
Four levels, each spanning two grades, on a two-year rotation. A student can start with plain-language puzzles in first grade and finish on the AMC 8.
Where your child starts
Placement follows grade, and each level maps directly onto the competition bands it prepares for.
- Grades1–2
Basic
Puzzles in plain language, with almost no notation. Students practise working out what a question is asking before they work out the answer.
- TargetsMath Kangaroo Levels 1–2
- Grades3–4
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.
- TargetsMath Kangaroo Levels 3–4
- Grades5–6
Intermediate
Number theory, counting, and early algebra, alongside the first AMC 8 problems. Contest math stops resembling school math somewhere in this level.
- TargetsMath Kangaroo Levels 5–6 · early AMC 8
- Grades7–8
Advanced
Full AMC 8 coverage: combinatorics, number theory, geometry, and proof-style reasoning. Students sit the real exam in January.
- TargetsAMC 8 (primary) · Math Kangaroo Levels 7–8
Two years in a level, zero repetition
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.
Year A and Year B are peers in difficulty rather than a sequence, so a new student can join in either one without a gap, and nobody sits through the same lesson twice.
Year A
A full year of topics, taught one year. Same difficulty, different problems.
Year B
A full year of topics, taught the next. Same difficulty, different problems.
How classes run
Weekly Saturday-afternoon Zoom classes. 8 teaching sessions + 1 in-person benchmark test per block, three blocks a year.
Cadence
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)
Season
27 Saturdays, August through mid-April
- No summer session. The year ends in mid-April so volunteers can prepare for AP exams.
- Class sizes stay small enough that every student is known by name.
- If a student misses a class, the recording and materials are posted afterward.
Not sure which level fits?
Tell us your child's grade and what they have done before, and we will suggest a level.