Categories
The School Award will no longer be divided into Junior, Senior and Open sections. Instead, there will be two categories based on the age cut-off:
Category 1: Count all students born on or after 2 January 2008* for each school
Category 2: Count all students born on or before 1 January 2008* for each school
* The year reflected here is applicable for SMO 2024 only. For subsequent years, the cut-off years will change accordingly.
Structure
The school ranking system for SMO was changed to a criteria based system from 2014 onwards. In the new system, schools will be awarded points for the number of participants that registered and attempted the paper, as well as the number of Gold, Silver, Bronze awards and Honorable Mentions obtained by the students. The school will then be given an SMO School Award based on the total number of points achieved.
Point System
The points to be awarded for both categories will be based on the following table
| Points Awarded | Achievements (per student)** |
| 1 | Registered and Attempted one SMO paper (regardless of section) For Cat 1, there is no cap on the total participation points for each school For Cat 2, total participation points will be capped at 100 for each school*** |
| 5 | Attained Honorable Mention |
| 10 | Attained Bronze Award |
| 15 | Attained Silver Award |
| 20 | Attained Gold Award |
Achievements (per student)**
** Examples:
1. If a student was born on or after 2 January 2008, he will be counted under Category 1. If he has registered and attempted both the Senior Section and Open Section paper and attained a Gold Award (Senior) and an Honorable Mention (Open), he will achieve 1+1+20+5 = 27 points for his school in Category 1.
2. If a student was born on or before 1 January 2008, she will be counted under Category 2. Due to the age limit, she can only register and attempt the Open Section paper. If she attained a Silver Award (Open), she will achieve 1+15 = 16 points for her school in Category 2.
*** If a school has more than 100 participants qualified for category 2, only 100 points will be counted towards the total number of points for that category.
Criteria for School Award
Category 1
| Total Number of Points | School Award |
| 1000 and above | SMO School Gold Award |
| 500 – 999 | SMO School Silver Award |
| 250 – 499 | SMO School Bronze Award |
| 100 – 249 | SMO School Participation Award |
Category 2
| Total Number of Points | School Award |
| 300 and above | SMO School Gold Award |
| 200 – 299 | SMO School Silver Award |
| 150 – 199 | SMO School Bronze Award |
| 500 – 149 | SMO School Participation Award |
Prizes
Each school which wins an award above in each category will receive a trophy (plaque). There will not be cash prize for school awards.
Singapore Mathematical Challenge Trophy^
We will keep the existing Singapore Mathematical Challenge Trophy for each of the Junior, Senior and Open sections. A Challenge Trophy will be awarded to the school with the highest aggregate of the best three total individual scores (first and second rounds) of its students in that section, subject to the following additional criteria:
For the junior section, there must be at least 150 participants from the school who take the junior section paper;
For the senior section, there must be at least 100 participants from the school who take the senior section paper;
For the open section, there must be at least 75 participants^^ from the school who take the open section paper.
^ The Challenge Trophy is independent of the two categories above.
^^ There is no age limit in counting the participants for open section.