June 2026 Contest — Grade 3
The June 2026 North Star contest paper for Grade 3 has 12 questions and a 45-minute limit. Two sample questions with worked solutions are below, and you can take the whole paper online for free — no account, no sign-up.
- Grade
- Grade 3
- Questions
- 12
- Time limit
- 45 minutes
- Contest
- June 2026
- Subject
- Mathematics
- School year
- 2025-26
Before you start
- The timer starts when you press Start and runs for 45 minutes.
- Answer the 12 questions in any order; each is multiple choice.
- Your answers are marked as you go. Nothing is saved to an account, so finish in one sitting.
Sample questions
The first and last questions from this paper, with their worked solutions.
Question 1 — Logical Reasoning & Problem Solving
Imagine you have a calendar for July 2027, but someone accidentally erased every single date except for one! If the only number left is July 20th, can you find out what day of the week July 1st was?
- A.Monday
- B.Tuesday
- C.Wednesday
- D.Saturday
- E.None of these
Show the worked solution
Step 1 — Read the image:
The image shows a calendar grid with columns labeled: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun.
In the column labeled "Thu" (Thursday), we see the number 20. This tells us that July 20th is on a Thursday.
Step 2 — Solve:
Since July 20th is a Thursday, we can find the day of the week for July 1st by counting backwards.
A week has 7 days, so the same day of the week repeats every 7 days.
Subtracting 7 days from July 20th: July 13th (20 - 7 = 13) is also a Thursday.
Subtracting another 7 days from July 13th: July 6th (13 - 7 = 6) is also a Thursday.
Now, we can count backwards day-by-day from July 6th to July 1st:
July 6th is Thursday
July 5th is Wednesday
July 4th is Tuesday
July 3rd is Monday
July 2nd is Sunday
July 1st is Saturday
Step 3 — Select:
July 1st was a Saturday, which corresponds to option D.
The answer is D
Question 12 — Logical Reasoning & Problem Solving
Five students — Ava, Ben, Carlos, Diana, and Ethan — are running a race. Ava finished ahead of Ben. Carlos finished between Ava and Diana. Ethan finished last. Diana finished ahead of Ava. What place did Ava finish in?
- A.2nd
- B.3rd
- C.4th
- D.5th
- E.1st
Show the worked solution
Let's find the order of the five students from first to last by looking at the clues step-by-step:
1. We know there are five students in total, and Ethan finished last. This means Ethan is in 5th place.
2. We are told that Diana finished ahead of Ava, and Carlos finished between Ava and Diana. This means Diana must have finished before Carlos, and Carlos finished before Ava. So, the order of these three from ahead to behind is: Diana, then Carlos, then Ava.
3. We also know that Ava finished ahead of Ben. This means Ben finished after Ava.
Now, let's put all of this together in order from 1st place to 5th place:
1st place: Diana
2nd place: Carlos
3rd place: Ava
4th place: Ben
5th place: Ethan
Looking at our list, Ava finished in 3rd place.
Therefore, the correct option is B.
Take the whole paper
All 12 questions, 45 minutes, marked as you go. No account needed.