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Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Mathematics Contests

The Pascal, Cayley and Fermat (PCF) Contests are a fun opportunity for participants to explore the potential of mathematics and their role in it. Designed to be accessible both to those that have written math contests in the past and to those who haven’t, these multiple-choice contests can help learners build confidence and inspire them to get excited about math.

Audience

  • Students in Grade 9 or below are eligible to write the Pascal Contest.
  • Students in Grade 10 or below are eligible to write the Cayley Contest.
  • Students in Grade 11 or below are eligible to write the Fermat Contest.

Date

Written in school in February. Visit Our Contests for dates and deadlines for the current year.

Format

  • 25 multiple-choice questions
  • 3 parts: Parts A and B follow a traditional multiple-choice format where the answer is A, B, C, D or E. In Part C, participants select a whole number from 0 to 99.
  • 60 minutes
  • Score out of 150
  • Written at school, participants write individually on paper or online
  • Some calculators permitted

Mathematical Content

Questions are based on curriculum concepts common to all Canadian provinces. The last few questions are designed to test ingenuity and insight. Rather than testing a specific curriculum, most of the contest problems test logical thinking and mathematical problem-solving.

Contest Supervision

  • The Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Contests can be written on paper or online. Teachers can select the mode of writing that best suits their needs when submitting a contest order.
  • Contest Supervisors should arrange to have participants write the contest at school, regardless of the mode of writing, and are responsible for ensuring that participants are supervised appropriately.
  • For participants writing the contests online, the Contest Supervisor will provide each participant with a link and a password to access our secure Online Contest Platform where they will enter their solutions on contest day.
  • Completed paper contest materials must be shipped back to the CEMC for marking.
  • Results will be available in our Contest Supervisor Portal six to eight weeks after the contest date.
  • Visit Contest Supervision to learn more about what’s involved in supervising a CEMC contest.

Results and Recognition

Accessing the Online Practice Contest

As introduced last year, participants writing the contest online will do so using our CEMC Contests Online platform. In order to give you and your participants an opportunity to familiarize yourselves with this new system, we've added a practice contest that features questions from last year's PCF contests. The practice contest will be available until February 23. Participants will not receive a test score on attempting a practice contest. Please pass this link and generic Practice Participant ID along to your participants:

CEMC Contests Online: online.cemc.uwaterloo.ca

Practice Participant ID: 2024PCF

Next Steps

To learn more about our contests, follow the links below to get started:

Get in Touch

Questions? We invite you to contact us.