AMC Past Papers: Where to Find Them (and How to Use Them)

Past papers are some of the most useful preparation material for the Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) — they show the exact style, the steep difficulty ramp, and the kinds of insight the competition rewards. Here's where to find genuine ones, and how to get the most out of a limited supply.

Where to find official AMC past papers

The Australian Maths Trust (AMT) — the organisation that runs the AMC — is the only source of genuine past papers. Through the AMT you can typically find:

• Past AMC papers and full solutions, published as books/booklets available from the AMT's bookshop and publications.
• Free sample and practice material on the AMT website, useful for familiarisation.

Always start at the official Australian Maths Trust website. Be cautious with third-party copies floating around online — they can be incomplete, mis-transcribed, or out of date, and the AMT's own solutions are worth having because they explain the intended method.

Why real past papers are limited (and precious)

There are only so many past papers, and once your child has seen a question, its value as fresh practice is gone. That's the catch with any past-paper-only plan: a keen student burns through the supply quickly, and then there's nothing new to stretch them. Past papers are best treated as a scarce resource for realistic rehearsal, not the day-to-day training material.

How to use a past paper well

• Save them for later. Don't open your best papers in week one. Build skills first, then use a full past paper as a realistic timed run closer to the competition.
• Do it under real conditions. One sitting, correct time limit, no interruptions — it builds stamina and exposes timing habits.
• Review by technique, not just answer. For every miss, ask why: a technique not yet known, a careless slip, or a misread. Two or three recurring gaps usually explain most losses.
• Read the official solutions. The point isn't whether you got it right — it's learning the clever step you might reuse next time.

What to do between past papers

Because genuine papers are scarce, the everyday training should be a large, varied supply of AMC-style problems at the right difficulty, each explained so your child learns the method — not just the answer. That's where day-to-day improvement actually happens; save the real past papers for rehearsal.

PrepPath provides AMC-style practice for the Middle Primary, Upper Primary, Junior and Intermediate divisions (Years 3–10): unlimited full 30-question mock papers with a genuine difficulty ramp, plus a practise-with-hints mode for working one problem at a time. Every question comes with a three-layer explanation — the key insight, the full method, and a sanity check — and a mastery map highlights which problem-solving techniques need work. For a step-by-step plan, see How to Prepare for the AMC, or try some AMC sample questions with worked solutions.

PrepPath is an independent educational platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with the Australian Maths Trust (AMT). "AMC" and "Australian Mathematics Competition" are used here for description only. PrepPath's practice questions are original, AMC-style material — not real AMC papers. For official past papers, solutions and competition dates, visit the Australian Maths Trust website.