Each meet typically covers the same topics from year to year, so the best practice for an upcoming meet is the same meet from past years. Choose a meet for its topics and its past contests.
Topics for each meet, 2026-27
Round 1 is always Mystery, which has no published topics. Every meet ends with a team round on that meet's topics.
| Meet | Geometry | Number Theory | Arithmetic | Algebra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meet 1October 15ten past contests | Angle measures in plane figures, including supplements and complements | Divisibility rules; factors; primes and composites | Order of operations; mean, median, mode; rounding; statistics | Simplifying and evaluating expressions; solving equations with one unknown, including identities |
| Meet 2November 19ten past contests | Area and perimeter of polygons | GCF, LCM; prime factorization | Fractions; terminating and repeating decimals; percents | Word problems with one unknown; working with formulas; reasoning in number sentences |
| Meet 3January 14ten past contests | Properties of polygons; Pythagorean Theorem | Bases; scientific notation | Integral powers (positive, negative, and zero); roots up to the sixth | Absolute value; inequalities in one variable, including interpreting line graphs |
| Meet 4February 25 Calculatorsten past contests | Properties of circles | Modular arithmetic; series and sequences | Percent applications; percent change; compound interest | Word problems (linear, including direct proportions or systems) |
| Meet 5April 1 Calculatorsten past contests | Solid geometry (volume and surface area) | Set theory; Venn diagrams | Combinatorics and probability | Solving quadratics with rational solutions, including word problems |
Past contests are kept on matharchive.org. See all past IMLEM meets, back to 1989-90.
Books, videos and more
These links open other websites.
Question bank and quiz generator
Books by Glenn Ellison
- Hard Math for Middle School: IMLEM Edition ($10 at Amazon)
- Hard Math for Middle School: IMLEM Plus Edition ($14.95 at Amazon)
- Hard Math for Middle School: Workbook ($9.99 at Amazon)
- Hard Math for Middle School: Solutions for Workbook, with Christopher Avery ($6.95 at Amazon)