Sitting SASMO as a private candidate: the option schools rarely mention

SASMO is the only one of the four major Singapore primary maths olympiads a parent can enter directly as a private candidate. NMOS, APMOPS and RMO are registered through the school — so if your school does not put pupils forward, those three are not available to you at any price.

Why this matters more than it sounds

NMOS, APMOPS and RMO are registered through the school. SASMO is the one a parent can enter directly as a private candidate.

Parents routinely spend a term comparing four contests, only to discover in March that three of them were never on offer. The registration route is not a detail at the end of the decision — it is most of the decision, and it takes one email to the school to settle.

What to ask, and when

• Does the school register pupils for NMOS, APMOPS or RMO?
• If so, how are pupils selected, and in which term does that happen?
• If not — is SASMO offered through the school, or should we enter privately?

Ask early in the year. Internal selection for the school-registered contests often happens well before the contest itself, and a family that asks in February has usually already missed it.

What being a private candidate does and doesn't change

It changes who handles the paperwork and the fee. It does not change the paper, the award bands, or how your child is ranked — a private candidate sits the same contest as everyone else and is scored against the same field. The real award odds are here.

What we can't know

Whether a particular school registers for a particular contest varies school by school and year by year, and no third party can tell you — including us. The organiser's own page is authoritative on entry routes and fees.

Eligibility follows the 2025–2026 cycles — confirm with the organiser before registering.

Sources

• MathsKid “Which Olympiad Fits My Child” poster (PDF)
• Registration routes as published for the 2025–2026 cycles

Last verified: 2026-08-05