Caltech Math Meet: Why Your Team Needs a Fourth Member

Three of you from math circle want to do the Caltech Math Meet in January, and registration is open now.

The team score is 40% Team Round and 60% individual results, and the individual part is counted two different ways. With four or more students, it is six times your average individual score. With three or fewer, it is the plain sum. So three students who each score 20 bring in 60. Add a fourth who scores the same, and the team brings in 120.

It’s an easy rule to miss, because it sits at the bottom of the official rules page. You have until November 13, 2026 to fix it, because that’s when registration closes.

What Is the Caltech Math Meet Now?

The Caltech Math Meet (CMM) is a team competition for high school students, organized by students from Caltech. The 2027 meet is on January 30, 2027, and it’s in person. Teams of up to six take a proof-based Team Round, a fast Guts Round and short-answer Individual Rounds, with no calculators allowed anywhere.

Round	Time	Format	Who takes it
Team	60 minutes	7 proof-style questions, roughly easiest to hardest, each with its point value	The whole team
Guts	75 minutes	9 sets of 3 short-answer problems; hand in each set to get the next; live leaderboard	The whole team
Individual	50 minutes each	10 short-answer questions per subject, no working shown; subjects from algebra/number theory, combinatorics, geometry and calculus, most likely two per student (still to be confirmed)	Each student

If you’ve read about a Power Round, that’s the old format. The organizers replaced it with the Guts Round “due to AI reasons.” Top scorers on each Individual Round may also be called to a short tiebreaker round.

---

Can You Enter?

You need to be 19 or younger and enrolled in high school full time. A team can have up to six students, and the rules state that smaller teams are at a disadvantage. The organizers ask that, where possible, a coach who is a legal guardian fills in the sign-up for each team and comes with you on the day. In practice that usually means one parent per team.

---

How Does Registration Work?

Registration is open until November 13, 2026. Signing up doesn’t guarantee a place: payment is due by December 1 “if your team is selected,” and the top 10 teams from 2026 are guaranteed spots as long as they also register in time. The fee is $120 per team or $20 per individual. Selected teams hear by email on November 14, and there are no refunds unless the meet is canceled.

Breakfast and lunch are provided, along with a t-shirt, and the day includes optional extras such as an Integration Bee, an admissions session and a math talk. The 2026 meet was held on the Caltech campus, with an optional Friday night event the evening before; the 2027 schedule isn’t posted yet. The official homepage still talks about 2026 registration, so use the CMM 2027 section of the registration page for the current dates.

---

Why Does a Fourth Teammate Matter So Much?

Here is the individual part of the team score for students who each score 20 on their Individual Rounds:

Team size	How it’s counted	Individual part
2	Sum	40
3	Sum	60
4	6 × average	120
5	6 × average	120
6	6 × average	120

Two things follow from that table. First, the fourth student is the most valuable addition a small team can make, even a weaker one: three students on 20 plus one on 8 average 17, which gives 102 against 60 for the three alone. Second, past four the individual part stops growing, because it’s an average, and a fifth or sixth student who scores below the others pulls it down. Extra students still earn their place in the Team and Guts Rounds, where more people means more problems attempted at once.

---

Which Practice Helps Which Round?

The three rounds test different skills, so practice them separately.

• Individual Rounds: ten short answers in 50 minutes, no working shown, in the subjects you choose (most likely two each, though the organizers haven’t confirmed it). Once they do, split the subjects across the team so all four of you aren’t sitting geometry.
• Team Round: seven proofs in an hour. If nobody on the team has written a proof before, start with the official CMM primer on mathematical writing on the resources page.
• Guts Round: three short-answer problems at a time for 75 minutes, against a live leaderboard. Practice it as a team with a timer, handing in each set before anyone looks at the next.

The rules allow paper, pencils, a compass and a ruler. No protractors, no calculators and no generative AI on any part of the meet. If you normally practice with a calculator, switch to pencil and paper now.

For practice papers, the official problems page has the 2024 to 2026 meets plus older CHMMC sets going back to 2010. Read the answer conventions sheet too: answers that aren’t in simplest form can be marked wrong. If you’re also preparing for the AIME, see how AIME-style short-answer problems compare.

Where Gonit fits is narrow. It’s multiple-choice and short-answer practice for one student at a time, for grades 1–12, so it helps with Individual Round speed. It has no proof-writing practice and no team mode, so it won’t help with the Team or Guts Rounds.

---

Your Next Six Weeks

By November 13 you want three things done:

1. Four to six students, all 19 or younger and in high school full time.
2. A coach, ideally a parent or guardian, who fills in the registration and can come on January 30.
3. The form submitted, with $120 for the team ready for December 1 if you’re selected.

Then spend December on two things: one past Team Round a week for proofs, and short-answer drills in the subjects each of you plans to take. On January 30 you’ll walk in as a full team, with the scoring on your side and each person knowing which round they’re there for.

For individual drills, Gonit has 10,000+ original Olympiad-style questions by grade and topic for grades 1–12.

---

Related guides

• PUMaC: Do You Need a Full Team to Compete?
• ARML: A Parent’s Guide to the American Regions Math League
• HMMT: What the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament Actually Involves

---