MathSE: Improving Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning via Self-Evolving Iterative Reflection and Reward-Guided Fine-Tuning

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Main Authors: Chen, Jinhao, Yang, Zhen, Shi, Jianxin, Wo, Tianyu, Tang, Jie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chen, Jinhao
Yang, Zhen
Shi, Jianxin
Wo, Tianyu
Tang, Jie
author_facet Chen, Jinhao
Yang, Zhen
Shi, Jianxin
Wo, Tianyu
Tang, Jie
contents Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in vision-language answering tasks. Despite their strengths, these models often encounter challenges in achieving complex reasoning tasks such as mathematical problem-solving. Previous works have focused on fine-tuning on specialized mathematical datasets. However, these datasets are typically distilled directly from teacher models, which capture only static reasoning patterns and leaving substantial gaps compared to student models. This reliance on fixed teacher-derived datasets not only restricts the model's ability to adapt to novel or more intricate questions that extend beyond the confines of the training data, but also lacks the iterative depth needed for robust generalization. To overcome these limitations, we propose \textbf{\method}, a \textbf{Math}ematical \textbf{S}elf-\textbf{E}volving framework for MLLMs. In contrast to traditional one-shot fine-tuning paradigms, \method iteratively refines the model through cycles of inference, reflection, and reward-based feedback. Specifically, we leverage iterative fine-tuning by incorporating correct reasoning paths derived from previous-stage inference and integrating reflections from a specialized Outcome Reward Model (ORM). To verify the effectiveness of \method, we evaluate it on a suite of challenging benchmarks, demonstrating significant performance gains over backbone models. Notably, our experimental results on MathVL-test surpass the leading open-source multimodal mathematical reasoning model QVQ. Our code and models are available at \texttt{https://zheny2751\allowbreak-dotcom.github.io/\allowbreak MathSE.github.io/}.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_06805
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MathSE: Improving Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning via Self-Evolving Iterative Reflection and Reward-Guided Fine-Tuning
Chen, Jinhao
Yang, Zhen
Shi, Jianxin
Wo, Tianyu
Tang, Jie
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in vision-language answering tasks. Despite their strengths, these models often encounter challenges in achieving complex reasoning tasks such as mathematical problem-solving. Previous works have focused on fine-tuning on specialized mathematical datasets. However, these datasets are typically distilled directly from teacher models, which capture only static reasoning patterns and leaving substantial gaps compared to student models. This reliance on fixed teacher-derived datasets not only restricts the model's ability to adapt to novel or more intricate questions that extend beyond the confines of the training data, but also lacks the iterative depth needed for robust generalization. To overcome these limitations, we propose \textbf{\method}, a \textbf{Math}ematical \textbf{S}elf-\textbf{E}volving framework for MLLMs. In contrast to traditional one-shot fine-tuning paradigms, \method iteratively refines the model through cycles of inference, reflection, and reward-based feedback. Specifically, we leverage iterative fine-tuning by incorporating correct reasoning paths derived from previous-stage inference and integrating reflections from a specialized Outcome Reward Model (ORM). To verify the effectiveness of \method, we evaluate it on a suite of challenging benchmarks, demonstrating significant performance gains over backbone models. Notably, our experimental results on MathVL-test surpass the leading open-source multimodal mathematical reasoning model QVQ. Our code and models are available at \texttt{https://zheny2751\allowbreak-dotcom.github.io/\allowbreak MathSE.github.io/}.
title MathSE: Improving Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning via Self-Evolving Iterative Reflection and Reward-Guided Fine-Tuning
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06805