Math Kangaroo Scoring: 3, 4 and 5 Point Tasks
Math Kangaroo does not score "number correct out of number asked." A real paper pays 3 points for each task in the first third of the booklet, 4 for the middle third, and 5 for the last third. The candidate also starts on the number of tasks, so nobody scores zero by sitting the paper. A 24-task paper runs 24…120. A 30-task paper runs 30…150. Those two facts — thirds, and a starting score equal to the task count — are the whole official shape.
My Path weights a Kangaroo session the same way: each item carries the points its paper assigned it, and the session score is points earned over points possible, not ticks over items. This article is the uncopyable version of that system, including the Level 5–6 length change, why we apply no wrong-answer penalty, and when a sitting gets an official_score. If you only wanted a practice-card walkthrough, use the Kangaroo practice test page instead.
The thirds follow the paper, not a fixed task number
It is tempting to memorise "tasks 1–10 are worth 3." That is true only on a 30-task paper, where the thirds are ten and ten and ten. On a 24-task paper the thirds are eight and eight and eight. Task 9 is therefore worth 4 on a 24-task paper (it is the first item of the middle third) and 3 on a 30-task paper (it is still in the first third). Banding points off a universal "question 9" rule, or off a complexity label, mis-prices every 24-task paper.
That is why the bank stores the paper's length with the item. The submit path reconstructs the starting score from that length rather than assuming every Kangaroo sitting was a 30. If you write your own mark scheme at the kitchen table, do the same: look at how many tasks that booklet had, divide into three equal blocks, then assign 3, 4, and 5.
The last third is where the paper is trying to separate people. Five points each is not a bonus for turning up. It is a statement that a correct late item should move the total more than a correct opener. Under an unweighted count, the ten easiest tasks would score the same as the ten hardest. Weighted, they do not.
Starting on the task count
A 24-task paper starts at 24. If you answer the first third all correctly, you add 8 × 3 = 24, and so on, up to 120 if everything is right. A 30-task paper starts at 30 and tops out at 150. The starting block is not "free points you can ignore." It is the floor of the published scale. Talking about a raw 0–100 percentage erases it.
On My Path, a short practice session of 10 or 20 items is not a 24- or 30-task paper. You still see a weighted session score for the items you were actually served. You should not rescale that number onto 24…120 or 30…150 unless the sitting was a whole paper. The section on official_score below is the rule for when we do that rescaling ourselves.
If you skip an item, you keep the starting points and you do not add that item's 3, 4, or 5. Skipping is not a negative score. It is a missed addition. That distinction matters once we get to penalties.
Paper sizes by band
| Grade band | Typical paper length | Thirds | Scale if you sit the whole paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3–4 | 24 tasks | 8 / 8 / 8 | 24…120 |
| 5–6 (2020–2021) | 30 tasks | 10 / 10 / 10 | 30…150 |
| 5–6 (2022–2025) | 24 tasks | 8 / 8 / 8 | 24…120 |
| 7–8 | 30 tasks | 10 / 10 / 10 | 30…150 |
| 9–10 | 30 tasks | 10 / 10 / 10 | 30…150 |
| 11–12 | 30 tasks | 10 / 10 / 10 | 30…150 |
Level 5–6 is the one that changed. If you practise a 2020 or 2021 5–6 paper, you are in the 30-task world. If you practise 2022 through 2025, you are in the 24-task world. The same "task 9" is a different point value across that cut. My Path does not collapse those years into one fake length. The item knows which paper it came from.
The other bands are stable in the table above: 24 for 3–4, 30 from 7–8 upward. Grade levels covers why you still never mix bands even when two bands share a length. Length is not difficulty. A 30-task 7–8 paper and a 30-task 11–12 paper are not interchangeable booklets.
What My Path reports after a session
The runner scores points earned / points possible for the items in that sitting. A 20-item mix drawn from early and late thirds will not have the same denominator as another 20-item mix from the same grade. Two students who both "got 14 right" can have different session scores if one person's 14 were openers and the other's were late 5-point tasks. That is the system working.
You also see correct, wrong, and skipped counts. Those are useful for retry-wrong. They are not the contest total. If you quote only the percentage, you are quoting the number Kangaroo was designed not to be.
When a sitting covered exactly one whole paper of one level, the submit response can carry official_score: the start-plus-thirds total on that paper's scale. A partial draw does not get one. A mixed-level draw does not get one, and mixed-level draws are refused anyway because one grade per sitting is the rule. A 10-item warm-up does not get one. A 60-item block does not get one just because 60 is bigger than 30; 60 is not "two papers." official_score is for "this sitting was a paper," not for "this sitting was long."
If the review screen has no official score, that is information. It means you practised items, not a booklet. Treat the weighted session score as the result of that practice. Do not invent a 24…120 equivalent on a napkin.
No wrong-answer penalty on My Path
Some Kangaroo editions deduct a quarter of a task's value for a wrong answer. Others deduct nothing. It varies by country and by year. My Path does not guess. There is no wrong-answer penalty on these sessions. A wrong pick scores the same as a skip in terms of points added: nothing. It does not subtract from the starting block.
That is a product decision, not a claim that "Kangaroo never penalises." If your national paper subtracts, your contest-day tactic for guessing is different from your My Path tactic. On My Path, a pure guess cannot hurt the total; it can only fail to help. On a penalising paper, a pure guess can hurt. Read the instructions on the day. Do not import our no-penalty rule into a booklet that says otherwise, and do not import a neighbour country's penalty into our review screen.
If a penalty is ever added here, it belongs on the test definition per edition, not as a platform-wide constant. Until then, skip and wrong are different pedagogically (you knew you didn't know, versus you thought you did) and identical in points added (zero).
Why unweighted percentages mislead
Suppose a 20-item session happens to contain eight 3-point openers, seven 4-point middle tasks, and five 5-point closers. Possible points from the items themselves are 8×3 + 7×4 + 5×5 = 24 + 28 + 25 = 77, plus whatever starting-score logic applies to a full paper — which, for a 20-item drill, we are not treating as a paper. If you get all five closers wrong and everything else right, your tick-rate still looks decent and your weighted score does not. The last third is doing what it is for.
The reverse happens too. A student who only attempts early items, gets them right, and leaves the rest can look "accurate" on a percentage-of-attempted statistic and still have a weak contest-shaped total. Weighted scoring punishes that pattern in the only way that matches the paper: the points you never reached were the expensive ones.
This is also why preparation should not use percentage as a Kangaroo score. Use points. Use retry-wrong on the 4s and 5s you missed. Use a timer if the issue is that the last third is never reached, not that it is reached and failed.
What the starting score is not
It is not a participation trophy in the cynical sense. It is how the published scale is anchored so that a paper of 24 and a paper of 30 can both be talked about without a 0–100 conversion. It is not extra credit you earn by showing working. Kangaroo is multiple-choice; the recorded answer is a letter.
It is not something My Path adds on top of a 10-item drill to make the number look official. Short sessions stay short. The starting-score story belongs to whole papers, which is why official_score is gated on "exactly one whole paper of one level."
If you are comparing two of your own full-paper sittings, compare official scores on the same band and, for 5–6, the same length era. Comparing a 24-scale sitting to a 150-scale sitting as if they were percentages is the same mistake as comparing ticks.
How this sits next to General Math
General Math can serve Kangaroo items when the grade and topic match, because those items live in the wider maths bank. When it does, the item still carries its points. The Kangaroo card is the place where the whole sitting is meant to feel like contest practice. General Math is complementary drill, including strands that are not Mixed Problems. Scoring on General Math follows each item's points if they exist; items without a paper value behave like ordinary one-point questions. Do not read a General Math percentage as a Kangaroo official score. It isn't one, even if some of the stems looked familiar.
A worked picture, without pretending it is your result
Take a 24-task 3–4 paper, sat as a whole paper. Start at 24. First eight right: +24. Middle eight with six right and two wrong: +24, and the two wrongs add nothing and subtract nothing on My Path. Last eight with three right: +15. Official-shaped total: 24 + 24 + 24 + 15 = 87 out of 120. Tick count: 8 + 6 + 3 = 17 / 24, which is a very different-looking story. The 87 is the one that matches the paper.
Now take a 20-item practice draw that is not a paper. You will see a weighted session score for those 20. You will not see 87/120. Do not "scale it up." Sit a whole paper if you want the whole-paper number, and even then remember we are not the contest.
What to do with the number
Use it to decide the next sitting, not to forecast a national rank. If the weighted score is being dragged by 5-point misses, filter less and stay later in the paper, or retry those items the next day. If you never reach the last third because of the clock, turn the timer on and practise leaving a 3-point item that is eating four minutes. If you are guessing a lot and our no-penalty rule is hiding a habit that will hurt on a penalising national paper, fix the habit here anyway: skip when you do not know.
My Path is not affiliated with Kangourou sans Frontières or with official national organisers. We do not sell entry. Scoring here is how we mark our bank, aligned with the paper's thirds and starting score, without inventing a penalty the editions do not agree on.
Open a sitting and look at points, not ticks
Start on Education with the Kangaroo card, Student or Monthly via plans. After the session, read the weighted score first. If official_score is present, you sat a paper. If it is not, you practised. Either way, the 3/4/5 split is the thing to understand before you quote a percentage to anyone, including yourself.