Canadian Team Mathematics Contest

Contest dates:

• North and South America:
  • At UWaterloo: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
  • In-school event: Wednesday, April 9, 2025, or later
• Outside North and South America:
  • In-school event: Wednesday, April 9, 2025, or later

Ordering deadline:

• Registration deadline for the lottery to participate at UWaterloo: Thursday, November 21, 2024
• In-school event: Monday, April 7, 2025 

The CTMC consists of three events:

• Individual event: Each team member solves the same set of 10 problems independently (45 min).
• Team event: Team members collaborate to solve a set of 25 problems (45 min).
• All questions in the Individual and Team events are short-answer.
• Relay event: Each team splits into two groups of three to solve questions where one participant's answer is needed by a teammate to solve the next question (45 min).
• There are no calculators allowed during the team event. Some calculators are permitted during the individual and relay events. 

The difficulty level and content may vary. Junior participants can contribute, but teams without seniors students may struggle with challenging problems. 

Below are links to three types of resources and classroom support that can help with preparation for the CTMC contest:

• Past Contests: Participants can review and attempt past contests to know more about the contest format, level of difficulty and to learn time management. The CEMC has published contests and their solutions from previous years in the Past Contests section of Tools and Resources.
• Math Courseware: Participants can use CEMC’s free, online Courseware to learn and review important curriculum content and concepts.
• CEMC Visits Schools: Experts from the CEMC are available to conduct problem-solving workshops for students and educators. Visit CEMC Visits Schools to learn more.

University of Waterloo-hosted event:

• Teams from Canadian schools enter a lottery to attend the CEMC hosted event in-person or virtually.
• Registration for the CTMC lottery will open in early November.  
• A team is comprised of six participants and one educator from the school. There is a limit of one team per school.
• Spots will be filled at random with a subset of spaces reserved for top-performing schools from the previous year and schools who have never attended the CTMC at UWaterloo.  
• Coaches for schools participating virtually will be responsible for administering certain aspects of the event at their end, including marking their team's answers and submitting scores to the contest organizers during the event. Instructions for grading and submitting scores will be provided prior to the event.
• It is not necessary to provide participant names to secure a spot. Educators may finalize the team line-up and notify the CEMC in the pre-contest registration form that will be sent to the educators a few weeks before the contest day.
• Certificates are provided by the CEMC to participants on contest day.  

In-School event:

• To host an In-School CTMC event, schools can place their order by logging into our Contest Supervisor Portal and navigating to Order Contests.
• Access to contest instructions and contest materials will be made available on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. EDT in the Contest Material Repository of the Contest Supervisor Portal.
• As many teams of six may participate in the contest as desired in each registered school.
• The entire contest takes approximately three hours to complete, but the events can be spread out as needed and do not even need to be run on the same day as one another.
• The deadline for ordering contests for the In-School CTMC event is Monday, April 7, 2025.
• Contest Materials and Instructions can be downloaded from the Contest Supervisor Portal. The supervisor administers the event and shares contest materials at appropriate times. All questions are graded on the basis of a final answer only.
• Supervisors may invite participants from other schools to join their event.
• We do not collect results from In-School CTMC events, but Contest Supervisors can log into our Contest Supervisor Portal to generate certificates for their participants.

University of Waterloo-hosted event:

Contest fee per team:  

In-person participation: $240.00

Virtual participation: $60.00

If your team is selected to attend, you will receive a link to provide payment in early March 2025. Payment will be accepted by credit card only and is due on Thursday, March 20, 2025.  

In-School event:

As many teams of six students as desired may write the contest for a single contest fee of $50.00.

Please note that a $5.00 processing fee applies to all contest orders.

This contest is tax-exempt within Canada and internationally.  

The CEMC does not offer refunds, returns or cancellations of any kind.