Dynamic Sampling that Adapts: Self-Aware Iterative Data Persistent Optimization for Mathematical Reasoning

Jun Rao, Xuebo Liu, Hexuan Deng, Zepeng Lin, Zixiong Yu, Jiansheng Wei, Xiaojun Meng, Min Zhang


Abstract
In mathematical reasoning, data selection strategies predominantly rely on static, externally defined metrics, which fail to adapt to the evolving capabilities of models during training. This misalignment limits the efficiency of Supervised Fine-Tuning and Reinforcement Learning. To bridge this gap, we introduce SAI-DPO (Self-Aware Iterative Data Persistent Optimization), a dynamic sampling framework that aligns training data with the model’s intrinsic competence. SAI-DPO operationalizes two novel metrics: Knowledge Semantic Alignment for targeting domain weaknesses, and Self-Aware Difficulty, derived from pass rates and reasoning path characteristics, to gauge instance complexity relative to the model’s current state. By iteratively recalibrating the data distribution based on real-time feedback, SAI-DPO dynamically aligns training samples with the model’s evolving competence, ensuring the data remains strictly relevant to the model’s current capability level. Extensive experiments on eight benchmarks (including AIME24 and AMC23) demonstrate that SAI-DPO outperforms static baselines at most nearly 6 points, achieving state-of-the-art efficiency with significantly less data.
Anthology ID:
2026.findings-acl.1412
Volume:
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026
Month:
July
Year:
2026
Address:
San Diego, California, United States
Editors:
Maria Liakata, Viviane P. Moreira, Jiajun Zhang, David Jurgens
Venue:
Findings
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
28337–28350
Language:
URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-acl/2026.findings-acl.1412/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Jun Rao, Xuebo Liu, Hexuan Deng, Zepeng Lin, Zixiong Yu, Jiansheng Wei, Xiaojun Meng, and Min Zhang. 2026. Dynamic Sampling that Adapts: Self-Aware Iterative Data Persistent Optimization for Mathematical Reasoning. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026, pages 28337–28350, San Diego, California, United States. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Dynamic Sampling that Adapts: Self-Aware Iterative Data Persistent Optimization for Mathematical Reasoning (Rao et al., Findings 2026)
Copy Citation:
PDF:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-acl/2026.findings-acl.1412.pdf
Checklist:
 2026.findings-acl.1412.checklist.pdf