About

Both tournaments feature individual and team rounds: individual tests consist of short-answer problems in subject-specific areas (algebra, geometry, combinatorics in February) or across general topics (November), while the Team round has students collaborate — on short-answer problems in November and proof-based problems in February. The signature Guts round runs 80 minutes across 36 questions of escalating difficulty in a fast-paced relay format. November teams consist of 4–6 students; February teams of 6–8. The top 10 teams overall are named Sweepstakes winners. No calculators, notes, or computational aids are permitted, and students may not compete in both tournaments in the same season. Admission is competitive: applications open each fall and qualifying teams are selected by lottery, as demand exceeds capacity. Entry fees are nominal ($10 per individual, $80 per team), with travel grants available for financial need.

The two tournaments are not interchangeable. November is calibrated for strong students comfortable with AMC and AIME-level material — a meaningful but accessible benchmark for serious high school mathematicians. February draws a fundamentally different field: IMO medalists, USAMO qualifiers, and top national olympiad scorers compete routinely, and the problems reflect it. Placing well individually at HMMT February, or contributing to a top team finish, is a signal that admissions offices at mathematically rigorous universities read clearly. The top 50 individual scorers from February are additionally invited to the Harvard-MIT Invitational Competition (HMIC) — a four-hour, five-problem proof contest that represents the apex of the HMMT ecosystem.

HMMT is the right tournament for any serious high school mathematician — November for students building toward the olympiad pipeline, February for those already in it.