Roughly 1300 students sit the BMO1 paper each year, and many of these attain a very low score as a percentage of the total number of marks available—the median score in 2004 was approximately 5 or 6 (out of 50). However, the paper is meant to be a way of selecting the best young mathematicians in the country, and is therefore very difficult. In addition to the British students, there is a history of about 20 students from New Zealand being invited to take part. Generally only about 30–40 students will score more than 50% in BMO1, with perhaps only 1 or 2 scoring above 90%.