Frequently Asked Questions

Eligibility and Registration Inquiries

• Is the competition open for home schooled students?
  Yes. The COMC is Canada's premier national mathematics competition that is open to any student who is interested in mathematics and meets the official eligibility criteria. The competition must, however, be supervised by someone not family-related to any of the students being supervised. Often, local home-schooling organizations can accommodate such needs.
• My school is not registering for the COMC. What are other options to register for the competition?
  All registrations for the COMC must come from schools through teachers or proctors. Individual students and their parents may approach nearby schools to see if they are participating in the COMC and willing to add an exam for your student to their order and to have the student sit in with the school's own students.
• Students of what grades may write the COMC?
  There are no grade eligibility requirements for the COMC. However, the difficulty level of questions is based on the mathematics curriculum taught in senior secondary grades and CÉGEPs. Some questions require a degree of understanding beyond the curriculum. To see potential topics and past exam questions, see our Getting Started page.
• What are the registration steps?
  The teacher in charge will need to use an existing school account or create a new school account by providing the school’s contact information and then place an order for the exams. Exams are shipped to the school by courier.
• What is the minimum number of students that a school can enter?
  In order to cover the expense for the exam material and shipping, a minimum of 3 exams per school within Canada or 5 exams per school internationally is required to be ordered.
• Is it possible to enter the competition without entering as a school?
  Not at this time. See home schooling provisions above if this applies to you.

Exam Format and Procedures

• How does our school obtain the students’ participation and award certificates?
  When the final results are announced, teachers/organizers will be able to log into their accounts to download and print the Participation certificates for all their students.
  Awards are only given to Official participants who achieve a high ranking, and these are also available for teachers/organizers to download and print.
• What is the date and place for the COMC?
  The 2014 COMC will be held on Thursday, November 6th in Canada and the Americas (anywhere in North/South American time zones), and on Friday, November 7th elsewhere in the world.

  The exam is held locally, usually in your school. The location is typically arranged by the teacher or organizer coordinating the competition at your school

• Is it an online, computer-based or paper-based exam?
  It is a paper-based exam.
• What is the time-length of the contest?
  The length of the competition is 2.5 hours.
• Are calculators permitted?
  No. Calculators and mobile phones are not permitted.
• Can I bring a dictionary into the COMC exam?
  Yes, dictionaries are allowed during the exam.
• I have a special needs student. Do you provide the exam in special formats?
  If the request is sent in with enough time, we will try to accommodate any exam format that is required.
• How can the student prepare for the exam?
  Beginning in the first week of September, we will post a sample problem each week to familiarize you with the kinds of questions you might find on a COMC exam. The solution is posted the following week when the next problem is posted.

  See our Problem of the Week page.

  
  Also, the student can practice using our archive of past exams and the official solutions.
• What is the format of the exam?
  The COMC exam is the same for students at all grade levels and consists of three sections:

  1. Four introductory questions worth 4 marks each. Partial marks may be awarded for work shown.
  2. Four more challenging questions worth 6 marks each. Partial marks may be awarded for work shown.
  3. Four long-form proof problems worth 10 marks each. Complete work must be shown. Partial marks may be awarded.

  Thus, there are 80 marks overall.

• Must it be done during the school time or any time during the day?
  The exam must be held on the date specified. Teachers/proctors will choose the time at each school, although the CMS recommends it be done during the school day if possible.
• Where should students’ answers be sent for marking?
  The school's organizer will receive instructions that will explain the exam process at the same time as the exams themselves arrive. Each exam packet contains an envelope that is addressed to a partner university where the exams will be marked. After the exam the teacher can put the completed exams in that envelope and send it (Canadian schools will be given pre-paid courier envelopes for this; outside Canada, schools must ship at their own expense such that the package can be received no later than November 17, 2014).
• Is the exam available in French?
  Yes. The teacher can specify how many exams in English and/or French are required when placing the order.

Payment and Shipment Inquiries

• How much does the exam cost?
  Within Canada: CA$12.50 per exam (minimum order of 3 exams).

  International: US$15.00 per exam (minimum order of 5 exams).

• Our school ordered a number of exams but find that we need more, but fewer than the minimum order size. Can we avoid the minimum order size somehow in this case? Will both orders be shipped together?
  Yes, if your previous order is paid, we can accommodate you. Phone us at +1 (613) 733-2662. All orders for a given school are shipped together.
• How can I pay for the registration?
  We prefer online payment by credit card. We use Paypal for credit card purchases. You may also use a Paypal account if you wish. We also permit payment by cheque or money order, although there is a payment deadline you need to meet.
• What is the deadline for the payment?
  All orders have to be paid by 22 October 2014. The Canadian Mathematical Society reserves the right to cancel any order which remains unpaid after the payment deadline.
• How do I know that the payment cheque was received?
  Normally when we receive your cheque, a receipt is automatically mailed to you showing that the order is paid. You can also log into your school account and see the status of all your orders, and reprint an invoice or receipt there.
• Can I change my mind and pay online for my order even if I originally said I'd pay by cheque?
  Yes. Log into your school account, find the order and click “Details / Pay Now”.
• When are the exams sent out to the teachers/organizers?
  All exams are sent at the end of October, in order to arrive before the exam date.
• The school paid for the exams, but some students will not write the exam. Can we decrease the order and get a refund?
  No, due to the low cost of the exam and the non-profit nature of the COMC, we have production costs that preclude us from issuing refunds in such situations.
• Can I cancel ordered exams?
  You can cancel an order up until October 22nd.
• Can we get the shipment tracking number to estimate the arrival time for the exams?
  You should receive all exams by Tuesday Nov 4th at the latest. If not, please contact our office at +1 (613) 733-2662 and we can give you the tracking numbers and can help to ensure that you get the exam shipment.
• If I register by the deadline will that leave enough time for shipping the test internationally?
  Yes, the exam will be sent by international courier service and will arrive on time.

Login and Account Inquiries

• I am the new department head and I do not know my password.
  Account access can be recovered by a department head or teacher with access to the email address we have on file for your school. This is done online using the “Forgot your log-in information?” link. If you have no access to previously used email addresses, contact our office. For security, we may require some steps to authenticate that you really are who you claim to be.
• I am a teacher and I forgot both my school ID and my login password.
  Account access can be recovered by a department head or teacher with access to the email address we have on file for your school. This is done online using the “Forgot your log-in information?” link. If you have no access to previously used email addresses, contact our office. For security, we may require some steps to authenticate that you really are who you claim to be.
• I am taking over as the teacher/organizer for a school that ran the COMC last year. How can I obtain the login information?
  Contact us by phone. For security, we may require some steps to authenticate that you really are who you claim to be.
• I am a teacher for a new school. How can I register the school and the students?
  Just click on "new school" on the registration/login page here.
• The school’s address changed. How do we update the school location information?
  This is only done through email to our staff. When you log into your school account, you can click on “Review school information” to see what we have on file for you. Since we need to ensure that exams are only sent to validated locations, we need to check into any changes before authorizing them.
• May I change the address after I submitted the payment?
  No. For security, we only ship to addresses we have confirmed are legitimate schools. Contact us if you are in this situation and are prepared to cooperate as we investigate to ensure the exams are not being inappropriately diverted.
• Is it possible to adjust/change the contact information for the school?
  Once you log into your school account, click on “edit contact information”.
• I moved to a different school, how can I remove my name from the previous school’s profile?
  Email us and let us know the previous school name, location and (if possible) the school ID.
• I am a new school administrator who would like to register for the competition. Could you tell me if the school already has an account ?
  Email or phone us and we will be happy to assist you in such a situation.
• The school registered in previous years. Do we use the same login information?
  Yes.

The Results

• How does our school obtain the students’ participation and award certificates?
  When the final results are announced, teachers/organizers will be able to log into their accounts to download and print the certificates for all their students. The best students in a region or province receive plaques we ship to their schools.
• How do I get my Score?
  Scores can be viewed by your teacher online in their school account. Scores are not published publicly online for privacy reasons.

  If your score is not available in your teacher's account, it may be due to missing information on your exam or because the payment has not been received for your particpation. If payment has been sent and scores are not available, please contact the COMC inquiries email at comc@cms.math.ca.

• What is an 'official paper'?
  To be considered official participants and to qualify for awards or prizes, participants and schools must meet the following requirements:

  1. The participant must be under 19 years of age as of June 30, 2014 and
  2. The participant must be attending school full-time (elementary, secondary, Cégep, or home-schooled) at least since Sept 15, 2014 and
  3. The participant must not have written the Putnam competition.

  Additionally, the participation is only considered official if it is proctored and offered under these rules:

  4. In North America, South America, Central America or in time zones covering these areas, the 2½ hour writing period must begin and end on Thursday, November 6th, between 8AM and 8PM local time.
  5. Elsewhere in the world, the 2½ hour writing period must begin and end on Friday, November 7th, between 8AM and 8PM local time.
  6. All exams must be proctored by officials who are not family-related to any of the participants they are supervising.
• Will I get a certificate?
  When the final results are announced, teachers/organizers will be able to log into their accounts to download and print the certificates for all their students. Every student receives a certificate. For those students who have earned award(s), the certificate lists all the awards the student earned. For students who did not earn any awards, the certificate is based on which quartile their scores fall into:

  1st quartile = Performance with Distinction
  2nd quartile = Performance with Honours
  3rd or 4th quartile = Certificate of Participation
• Will I receive a prize?

  Anyone writing the COMC in Canada is also eligible for randomly drawn participation prizes from the following prize pool:

  • One (1) $500 cash prize drawn nationally;
  • Fourteen (14) $100 cash prizes drawn by province or, in the case of Ontario, by region;
  • At least one (1) $100 cash prize drawn across the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut; and
  • Approximately two hundred (200) general participation prizes (e.g. T-shirt, USB thumb drive, etc.) drawn nationally across equally-sized participant groupings.

  Additional prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the COMC Committee.

  The chance of winning a prize depends on the respective number of national, provincial, or regional participants.