We built flashcard decks for the JMC toolkit and every year from 2015 to 2026 — 13 decks, 156 cards in total — and then counted which KS3 topics recurred across them. A small number of topics showed up again and again; most showed up once or twice. Below is what the counting actually found, and what we think it's worth for revision planning. This is a different kind of piece from the facts worth knowing cold — that's a curated list; this is the raw pattern behind it, with the numbers shown.
What we counted, and the honest caveat first
Every JMC-style question we've written for our flashcard decks is tagged against a KS3 topic. Across the 13 decks — the toolkit deck plus one deck for each year from 2015 to 2026 — we counted how many different decks each topic showed up in. A topic appearing in 10 of the 13 decks isn't the same as saying "this topic is on 10 of the last 13 real papers" — it means it recurred often enough in our own review of JMC-style material across those years that we kept writing cards for it. It's a real, computed signal, but it's a signal about our library, and we want to be upfront about that rather than dress it up as an official UKMT statistic, which doesn't exist.
With that said — this is still a genuinely useful, genuinely unique angle. Nobody else has counted this, because nobody else has built thirteen years of JMC-style flashcard decks to count it from.
The topics that recurred the most
Here is every topic that showed up in three or more of the 13 decks, ranked by how often it recurred:
| Topic | Recurred in | Example of the kind of question |
|---|---|---|
| Factors, multiples & primes | 10 of 13 decks | Divisibility tests, prime digits, which choice can be ruled out by parity |
| Squares, cubes & roots | 7 of 13 decks | Recognising squares and cubes on sight, why a square can't end in 2, 3, 7 or 8 |
| Perimeter & area | 6 of 13 decks | Overlap and notch questions, comparing shapes built from the same pieces |
| Angles in polygons | 5 of 13 decks | Exterior angle sum, interior angle formula, regular polygon angles |
| Place value & ordering | 5 of 13 decks | Fencepost counting, building the largest or smallest number from digits |
| Metric unit conversions | 5 of 13 decks | Minutes/hours/days, grams/kilograms, quick unit-scale estimation |
| Listing outcomes systematically | 4 of 13 decks | Counting squares in a grid, worst-case pigeonhole reasoning |
| Multiplication & division fluency | 4 of 13 decks | Remainder rules, parity of sums, units-digit shortcuts |
| HCF & LCM | 4 of 13 decks | When the LCM is (and isn't) the product of two numbers |
| Special triangles | 4 of 13 decks | Isosceles and right-angled-isosceles angle facts |
| Fractions ↔ decimals ↔ % | 4 of 13 decks | Converting eighths, fifths and quarters on sight |
| Quadrilateral properties | 4 of 13 decks | Rhombus, kite and trapezium angle and diagonal facts |
| Naming 3D solids | 3 of 13 decks | Cube edges/faces/vertices, Euler's formula, prism counting |
| Prime factorisation | 3 of 13 decks | Building numbers from prime factors, smallest number with four different primes |
The single strongest signal in the whole library is factors, multiples and primes — it recurred in 10 of the 13 decks, well ahead of anything else. If a revision session only had time for one topic, our own data says that's the one.
What it looks like by strand, not just by topic
Zooming out from individual topics to the six broad strands the KS3 maths curriculum is usually split into tells its own story:
| Strand | Touched |
|---|---|
| Number | All 13 of 13 decks |
| Geometry & measures | All 13 of 13 decks |
| Algebra | 9 of 13 decks |
| Ratio & proportion | 7 of 13 decks |
| Probability | 4 of 13 decks |
| Statistics | 4 of 13 decks |
Number and geometry/measures are the two strands that appeared in every single deck — no year went by without both of them featuring heavily. That matches what a lot of parents and tutors already sense about the JMC informally: it leans on arithmetic reasoning and shape/angle facts far more than it leans on statistics or formal algebra. Ratio and proportion sits in the middle — present in most years, but clearly a step down from number and geometry. Probability and statistics are real but genuinely the smallest slice, at least in the material we've built decks for.
What this means for revision time
If you're deciding where to point a limited amount of revision time, this gives you an actual order rather than a guess:
- Start with factors, multiples and primes. It's the single most recurring topic by a clear margin — divisibility tests, prime digits, and the parity arguments that follow from "2 is the only even prime" are worth being completely fluent in.
- Then squares, cubes and roots, since it's the second most recurring topic and pairs naturally with the first — a lot of the fastest JMC shortcuts sit at the overlap of the two (recognising 169 as 13², knowing a square can't end in certain digits).
- Then the geometry cluster — perimeter & area, angles in polygons, special triangles and quadrilateral properties together cover most of what geometry & measures contributes, and as a strand it's tied for the most universal in the whole library.
- Treat metric conversions and place value as quick wins, not because they're hard, but because they recur often and are genuinely fast to get solid — minutes-hours-days, grams-kilograms, and fencepost counting are all facts rather than skills to build.
- Don't skip ratio, probability or statistics entirely — they show up less often in our count, but "less often" across 13 decks still means real years where they mattered, and a paper can ask about anything on the KS3 curriculum regardless of what recurred in ours.
If your child is short on time before a sitting, this ordering is a genuinely defensible way to spend the first few revision sessions — and it's exactly the kind of prioritised, spaced-out revision that flashcards and spaced repetition are suited to, rather than a single cramming session the week before. Pair it with the specific facts worth knowing cold and the mistake patterns to watch for and you have a genuinely complete, genuinely evidenced revision plan.
FAQ
Is this an official UKMT list of what will be on the paper?
No. UKMT doesn't publish anything like this, and each year's paper is written independently. This is a count of which KS3 topics recur across our own library of 13 JMC flashcard decks — a real, computed pattern, but a pattern in our decks, not a guarantee about any future paper.
Why does "number" cover every single deck?
Because the JMC leans heavily on number reasoning throughout — divisibility, place value, primes, squares and cubes turn up in some form in every deck we've built, more than any other strand. Geometry and measures is just as universal, so the two together make up most of a typical paper.
Should my child only revise the topics on this list?
No — treat it as where to spend the first hour of revision, not the only hour. A handful of topics recurring often just means they're a very efficient place to start; a paper can and does ask about anything on the KS3 curriculum.
Related reading
- JMC facts every KS3 child should know
- Common JMC mistakes and misconceptions
- Preparing for the JMC with spaced repetition
- The UK Junior Maths Challenge: A Parent's Guide
Duke Harewood built aitutors.me's KS3 maths tutor (Professor Pi) for his Year 8 daughter, who has sat her share of maths challenges. This count comes directly from the taxonomy tags on Professor Pi's own JMC flashcard decks. Updated 26 August 2026.