Olympiad and Oxbridge maths tutoring
I teach the kind of mathematics that has no syllabus: olympiad problems, and the admissions tests and interviews that are built from them.
Very few students at a time, and every one of them at least weekly.
- 3Cambridge maths offers, 2025–26students I prepared for interview
- 91%Maths Admissions Test98th percentile
Who I work with
Olympiad
Junior and Senior Maths Challenge, the Olympiad follow-on rounds, and the British Mathematical Olympiad — BMO1 and BMO2. Most of my students come to me somewhere between a strong Senior Challenge score and a BMO1 qualification, and want to know what to actually do with three and a half hours and six problems they have never seen. One student I taught qualified for BMO2, placing in the top 100 nationally, and was subsequently one of about 24 students invited to the initial training camp at The Queen’s College, Oxford, a residential camp for students new to international-level olympiad mathematics.
Oxbridge admissions
The TMUA, and the interviews that follow. I scored 91% on Oxford’s MAT in 2024, the test the TMUA has since replaced, and I now work as an admissions ambassador for Oxford Admissions and the Mathematical Institute, so the process is recent and familiar rather than remembered. In 2025–26 I also prepared interview candidates through a leading admissions agency, three of whom received Cambridge maths offers.
Students who have run out of school
Not everyone I teach is preparing for something. Some are simply strong students whose school has stopped offering them anything hard. Olympiad problems are the best answer I know to that, and they don't require any syllabus the student hasn't met.
How I teach
One problem at the edge, not ten below it
A student learns almost nothing from a question they can already do, and almost nothing from one they have no way into. Nearly everything happens in the narrow band where they can get started, get stuck, and get out again with a nudge. The hard part of teaching this subject is not explaining — it is finding the problems in that band for that student on that day.
Doing the mathematics, not watching it
Sessions are built around doing mathematics together, not watching me do it. On a shared online whiteboard we work through hard, often non-standard problems in real time, and rather than showing the solution I ask the questions that nudge a student towards finding it themselves. It is the same kind of thinking that happens in an Oxford tutorial.
Proof as the thing being taught
Olympiad marking rewards a complete argument and almost nothing else. A student who can see the answer but cannot write down why loses the marks. So sessions spend real time on what a proof owes the reader: the case you have not covered, the configuration you have assumed, the 'similarly' that is standing in for an argument that is not similar.
Performance, not just mathematics
BMO1 is three and a half hours against six problems you have never seen — a test of temperament as much as technique: what to try first, when to abandon a line, how long to spend before switching. We do timed papers and then go through the decisions, not only the mathematics. Next summer I am interning at Optiver, a quantitative trading firm and the sort of place many of my students are aiming for; I got there with the same skills I teach.
Homework that practises what the lesson taught
Homework should give a student more of what the lesson covered, and in olympiad maths that is harder than it sounds: half of the techniques that appear in BMO turn up in five problems or fewer across thirty years of papers. So I built a catalogue of every question from 1993 to 2026, solved, written up, classified by the techniques it uses and rated for difficulty. After a lesson on, say, spiral similarity, I can find every problem in the competition's history that uses it, at the level the student is ready for, and set those.
More about Mathelo →Every session starts from the week before
Homework is set through Mathelo, and I see every question a student finishes as they finish it — the ones I set and the ones they choose to try on their own — and they can see their own progress too. Then I read the written work itself, because in olympiad marking a student who is sure they have ten out of ten can easily have two. Together that shows what is going well and what isn't, so each session goes where it is most needed: if a student has tried seven geometry questions this week and got every one wrong, that is where the next lesson begins.
Practicalities
- Sessions run online, one to one, usually ninety minutes — long enough for a student to get properly stuck and out again.
- Between sessions a student gets a problem set chosen for them, not a photocopied sheet. If they get stuck there are hints that give away a little at a time, or they can message me, and I mark what they write before we next meet.
- Every student works with me at least once a week, and often more than once.
- Taking on very few students at a time is the only way each of them gets preparation built for them, so places open rarely.
Questions
What level does my child need to be at?
For olympiad work, comfortably strong at school maths and enjoying it — a good Senior or Junior Maths Challenge score is a useful sign, but not a requirement. For the TMUA and interviews, being on track for an A* in Maths is the usual starting point. If you are unsure, say so when we talk — hearing that olympiad work is a year early is better than paying for sessions a student is not ready for.
Do you teach online or in person?
Online. I teach from Oxford during term, and the whiteboard-and-problem-set format works as well remotely as it does in a room — better, in some ways, since everything written in a session is saved and sent on afterwards.
Are you DBS checked?
Yes — an enhanced certificate, kept current through the DBS Update Service rather than dating from a single check. Happy to share it on request.
How far ahead should we start?
For BMO1 in the autumn, the summer before is the natural time to begin — olympiad technique is slow to build and does not respond well to being crammed. For the TMUA, three to four months is usually enough. For interviews, a handful of sessions close to the date is often the right amount.
Can you help with the interview specifically?
Yes, and this is worth doing separately from the test. I write bespoke mock interview questions rather than reusing a bank, because the point is to be asked something you have not seen and to think out loud well while you do it.
What happens on the planning call?
We talk — it is not a lesson. Half an hour to cover what a student is aiming at and by when, what they have done so far, how sessions and homework would work, and the practical side: timing, frequency and cost. A parent should be on the call, and the student is welcome too. The mathematics starts in the first session.
What happens in the first session?
A student works on problems while I watch, and I find out where the band is — what they reach for first, where they stop, what they do when a problem does not open. Everything after that is chosen from what I see there.
Get in touch
The place to start is a free 30-minute planning call — for a parent, with the student welcome to join. We cover what they are aiming at and by when, how the sessions and the homework would work, and whether I'm the right person to help. Tell me a little about the student below and I'll come back with times.
Or email tutoring@janickmoss.com directly, if you would rather not use a form.