HMMT prep
HMMT is a pair of student-run tournaments, one in November and one in February, run by students from Harvard and MIT. The February tournament is the harder one, with individual subject tests, a proof-based team round and a Guts round.
HMMT at a glance
- Two tournaments
- November and February. February asks for deeper, more specialized knowledge.
- Individual rounds
- February has subject tests in Algebra and Number Theory, Combinatorics, and Geometry, 50 minutes each. November has two broader rounds, General and Theme.
- Team and Guts
- A proof-based team round and a Guts round, where teams work through sets of short problems.
Who this is for
The individual and Guts rounds at HMMT take a single exact value for each answer, which means some are fractions or radicals and the algebra has to come out clean. The team round is proof-based. It is a good next step for a student who already handles the AIME and wants problems with more twist.
The February papers are the harder ones, so start with November and move to the February subject tests when those feel comfortable.
The HMMT circuit preset in Arena runs a paper the way the tournament does. Every problem carries a subject tag, and the Subjects table shows where you lose points.
What Lemmas has for HMMT
- Problems in the bank
- 510
- Years covered
- 2016 to 2026
- Median difficulty, out of 100
- 48
On the 1 to 100 scale the HMMT median is 48, level with the AIME's 48. The 510 problems in the bank run from 2016 to 2026 and rate from 10 to 82.
Arena lists 20 HMMT papers and seals the answers until time is up. The middle half of the ratings falls between 37 and 60, and the About page describes the scale.
November against February
The bank holds 300 February problems and 210 November ones, and the two tournaments rate 11 points apart at the median.
- February tournament, median rating
- 54
- November tournament, median rating
- 43
February rates higher, which fits it being the harder tournament.
HMMT problems by subject
The two biggest subjects in the HMMT bank are Combinatorics (166) and Geometry (161), and the smallest is Algebra (81).
- Combinatorics, 33% of the bank
- 166
- Geometry, 32% of the bank
- 161
- Number Theory, 20% of the bank
- 102
- Algebra, 16% of the bank
- 81
Questions about HMMT
What is the difference between HMMT November and February?
November has two broad individual rounds, General and Theme, with problems from all areas of high school math. February asks for deeper and more specialized knowledge, with subject tests in Algebra and Number Theory, Combinatorics, and Geometry and a proof-based team round.
Are HMMT answers integers?
Not always. Answers in the individual and Guts rounds are single exact values, so some are fractions or radicals, and you practice simplifying as well as solving.
Does Lemmas have HMMT problems?
Yes, with the permission of the tournament. Every HMMT problem is credited to HMMT and links back to its archive.
Where the HMMT problems come from
HMMT gave written permission, by email, for its problems to be used on Lemmas, and each one is credited to the tournament and links to its archive.
HMMT on the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament website (opens in a new tab)
Make an account and try your first problem.
Username, email and password. No card.