The Waterloo University of Canada first opened its doors in 1957. About 42 engineering students stepped in with cooperative educational backgrounds but now more than 42,000 students study there annually. As a result, Waterloo is Canada's No.1 University where experience-based learning is practiced and has the best employer-student connections.
Today the University has formed a global network with more than 220,000 alumni from over 151 countries. Waterloo University attracts students and world-class scholars from all over the world. This diverse organization has generated various job opportunities and has become Canada's top start-up by private investment. Waterloo University brings brilliant and like-minded people together and helps them become future entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, leaders, and curious explorers.
At present, there are many faculties and departments such as arts, computer, math, science, etc., with various departments. And several research Centre and institutes, which includes the CEMC. In addition, the center brings various Waterloo CEMC Contests for students to develop various skills for a better future. In this article, we will share a detailed note on all the contests held by CEMC.
What is CEMC?
CEMC stands for the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, where a couple of exciting waterloo math contests and waterloo coding contests are held. Waterloo CEMC contests help impel students to grow their confidence, help them learn problem-solving skills, and learn much more about computing and mathematics.
The first Waterloo CEMC contest was held in 1963 by a group of secondary school teachers. They developed the first math contest by the University of Waterloo in Ontario. From there, a series of multiple Waterloo math contests and Waterloo computing contests started. These contests inspired many students and helped CEMC grow into Canada's most leading mathematics and computer science authorities for young minds.
With over 50 years of excellence, CEMC is one of the largest organizations in Canada. CEMC, with over 40 faculty and staff members and hundreds of dedicated volunteers, is a part of this vast organization. About 265,000 students from 80countries take part in these amazing contests and learn a lot. In addition, 630learners participate in CEMC workshops each year, and over 300 teachers are attaining an advanced degree in the MMT program (Master of Mathematics for Teachers). CEMC, with their mission to increase their students' interest, enjoyment, understanding, and concepts of mathematics and computing they have made a commitment to some principal values such as access, readiness for future, community and impact.
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CEMC Contests
There are 12 CEMC Waterloo math contests and 2 Waterloo computer contests that inspire students of 5 to 12 grades to take part and learn various things. However, these Waterloo CEMC contests are much more than just competitions. They are made according to every student and even challenge the brightest students. The various Waterloo CEMC contests include the following:
Gauss Mathematics Contests
Who can attempt the test?
Students from 7th and 8th grades can participate in the contest, and all the students from the lower grades who are also interested in participating in the exams can do so.
Format of Test:
The contestant has to attempt 25 multiple-choice questions in 60 Minutes. Each MCQ is of 6 marks. Calculators are allowed in some instances during the contest.
Gauss Contest Information and Preparation:
All the students can register for the waterloo Gauss mathematics contest through the website or from their school. There are 2 mediums available for attempting the exam. The student can give the exam on paper as well as online. The students will get their results exactly after one week. The students who attempted their exams online may need to wait a bit to announce their results. The students should solve multiple problems to prepare themselves for the math waterloo contest. They need to concentrate on problem-solving techniques to solve any kind of problem without any issue. Many teachers use waterloo past math contests in classroom, and CEMC problem set generator enables anyone to build random sets of problems with the choice to modify the topics covered. The math contest of the University of Waterloo includes questions taken from different sources. They take questions that are common in the curriculum of all Canadian Provinces.
Pascal, Cayley, Fermat Mathematics Contests:
Eligibility:
- Students who are eligible to appear in Pascal Contest can be from 9th grade or below.
- Students who are eligible to appear in Cayley Contest can be from 10th grade or below.
- Students who are eligible to appear in Fermat Contest can be from 11th grade or below.
Format of Test:
The contestant has to attempt 25 multiple-choice questions in 60 Minutes. Each MCQ is of 6 marks. Calculators are allowed in some instances during the contest.
Contest Information and Preparation:
The registration process is quite easy for the students. They can do it from their schools as well from their homes. Students have the choice to write the exam on paper or give it online. The source materials for the questions of the exam are taken from the curriculum common to all Provinces. The first few questions of the exam are logical and conceptual. The second part of the exam consists of questions that are created to test ingenuity and insight. Rather than testing memory, the high school math contest by CEMC is designed to test the analytical and logical thinking and mathematical problem-solving technique of the student. Therefore, students should focus on their problem-solving techniques and prepare for their math contest by waterloo accordingly. They should also look at the past papers of the contest and take notes from them. Official website: Pascal, Cayley, Fermat Mathematics Contests
Fryer, Galois, Hypatia Mathematics Contests:
Eligibility:
- Students eligible to participate in the Fryer contest can be from Grade 9 or below.
- Students eligible to participate in the Galois contest can be from Grade 10 or below.
- Students eligible to participate in the Hypatia contest can be from Grade 11 or below.
Format for FGH Math Contest:
- Total marks are 40.
- The time allowed for the contest is 75 minutes.
- Total 4 questions in which some require answers only and some with a full-length solution and working.
- Simple calculators are permitted which do not contain internet access, previously stored information, computer algebra, and dynamic geometry software.
Contest Details and Preparation:
FGH high school math contest is conducted in written form only and mail their papers. Electronically returned contests will not be accepted. Questions for the Fryer, Galois, Hypatia Mathematics Contests are according to the common curriculum in all Canadian provinces. Students can prepare for the waterloo contest by past exams and by trying to solve problems. The results are posted online, and teachers generate certificates accordingly.
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Euclid Mathematics Contests:
Students who can participate:
Last year, CEGEP students can register, and inspired students of lower grades can also take part in the contest.
Format for the Contest:
- Total marks are 100.
- The total time allowed is 2.5 hours.
- 10 questions, some with only answers and some with full-length solutions with working.
Contest details and Euclid Preparation:
Euclid Mathematics Contests is a written contest, and the waterloo team allots the required material for the math contest. However, homeschoolers will attempt the contest under the supervision of an adult. The contest content includes questions from curriculum up to the final year of secondary school including it. Students are advised to prepare for the waterloo math contest from Euclid eWorkshop, Grade 12 courseware, mathematics course manual, and past contests. The result comes online.
Canadian Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contests:
Students who can participate:
The students in Grade 9 or 10 or below can take part in the Canadian Intermediate Mathematics Contest. Similarly, CEGEP students can take part in the Canadian Senior Mathematics contest and dedicated students in lower grades.
Waterloo math contest format:
- Total marks are 60.
- The time allowed for the contest is 2 hours.
- Total questions are 9, in which 6 only require the answers and 3 require solutions and working.
- Some calculators are allowed.
Contest details and Preparation:
Most CIMC questions are from up to and Grade 10 mathematical curriculum. And most CSMC problems are based on up to and 11 Grade mathematical curriculum, which includes the final year of secondary school. In addition, students can prepare for the CEMC waterloo math contest from Grade 12 open courseware and try to prepare by solving more problems. Some teachers use past contests as well. Official website is here: Canadian Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contests
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Canadian Team Mathematics Contest:
Participants Criteria:
Participants should be in a team of 6 secondary school students per team in any combination of grades. Almost half the questions in individual and many in Team challenges are accessible to 9 and 10-grade students.
Format for the Contest:
- 45 minutes are given for individual problems.
- 45 minutes for the team questions where team members collaborate to solve the problem.
- And 45 minutes for the relay questions in which one member's answer is needed to solve the next question by the teammate.
- Calculators are not allowed in the team questions, although some calculators are permitted during the relay and individual questions.
Details for Virtual Contest and Preparation:
For the official virtual event, CEMC hosted the event using zoom meeting. As a result, all Canadian schools can participate remotely. However, only one team, including six students and one teacher, can participate per school.
For the unofficial virtual event, teams are provided with access to the website to download University Waterloo math contest instructions and material. In an unofficial event, teams meet virtually on zoom and have approximately 3 hours for the contest. Canadian Team Mathematics Contest is a top level high school math contest
The difficulty of questions in the contest varies. Teams with a senior student may have the edge over other teams. For Preparation, students can try to solve as many problems as possible and solve past papers.
Beaver Computing Challenge:
Eligibility:
- Students eligible for 5/6 grade BCC should be of grade 6 or below.
- Students eligible for 7/8 grade BCC should be of grade 8 or below.
- Students eligible for 9/10 grade BCC should be of grade 10 or below.
CEMC Waterloo Computing Contest Format for BCC:
- For grade 5/6, 12 multiple choice questions are given for 60marks.
- For grades 7/8 and 9/10, 15 multiple choice questions are given for 90 marks.
- The total time allowed for all grades is 45 minutes.
- Some calculators are allowed, such as those without a computer algebra program.
Contest details and Beaver Contest Preparation:
The Beaver Computing Challenge focuses on critical thinking and computer-related thinking. Hence, questions are also inspired by computer science with respect to the mathematics curriculum that is common in all provinces of Canada. However, connection to the computer is shown in all past questions for students' ease. To prepare for BCC, students can go through some past contest questions. And Beaver Contest Preparation has a complete teaching guide for primary students. However, there is no need to prepare as the questions are based on critical thinking, and students will come across a new subject. Teachers have access to students'' results, and they can generate certificates, then students can print certificates from the website.
Canadian Computing Competition (CCC):
The Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) started in 1996 as a platform for computer fanatic students to learn and develop computer and programming and knowledge in a fun and interesting way. This forum is for the high school scholars in Canada to acquire various aspects of computers and programming. Top senior participants are then invited to attend the Canadian Computing Olympiad (CCO). Approximately 20 senior participants are invited to attend CCO that are classified as Canadian School Officials. The CCO held at the University of Waterloo is a week-long event with some workshops, a contest, and some other extra co-curricular activities. This contest also determines the participation in IOS (International Olympiad in Informatics).
The CEMC Waterloo computing contest allows students to determine their ability and knowledge towards designing, understanding, and implementing algorithms. In addition, the students of secondary level can learn computing and computer programming in a fun way. The computing contest waterloo is divided into two levels:
Junior level: Any student who has taken computer science 20 and has basic programming skills.
Senior-level: Any student who has top grades in computer science 30 and has done many self-studies regarding structures and algorithms.
About the CCC competition:
The CCC is written in schools with the help of CCC Online Grader. CCC Online Grader is a program that provides instantaneous feedback on solutions to algorithmic programming problems. It is used for the competition as well as holds the past contest problems that are highly recommended to prepare for the CCC competition.
The CCC competition is of 3 hours and has five questions for both junior and senior levels. It is not a team competition; however, teachers need to register for contests written in respected schools. After the competition, 20 top senior contestants are invited to CCO. The results of the competitions decide Canadian Team Participants who will take part in the International Olympiad informatics that is held every year in a different country. It is at CEMC's disposal to select both CCO contestants and Canadian IOI Team Members.
Languages used for the test:
For programming languages used in the University of Waterloo computing, the students are advised to use CCC Online Grader. Currently, CCC Online Grader supports the following languages, Python (2.x and 3.x), C, C++,Pascal, PHP, Java, and Perl. CCO contestants must use Java and C/C++programming languages. Although CCC Online Grader supports various languages, it may not be possible to achieve a perfect score using a particular programming language. (For instance, Java and Python).
General competition rules:
The general rules for the CCC competition are as following:
- The use of the internet for chatting, email, and search is forbidden. However, students can use the internet for code completion, code editing, contest submission, and consulting official programming language documentation.
- Students cannot use another starter code or source.
- Students are permitted to use rulers, compasses, graph paper, and rough sheets during competition.
- Students are allowed to use manual dictionaries to translate English and any other language.
- Up to 50 submissions are accepted per problem.
- In case of using prohibited tools and sources, the student will be responsible for the consequences such as zero marks in CCC competition, the student will be banned from every CCC exam, and the school will be informed.
Eligibility criteria:
Junior level- any student with basic knowledge of elementary programming skills.
Senior level-any student with an intermediate or advanced level of knowledge of programming skills.
Date for the CCC competition:
The Canadian Computing Competition is held in February, and the CCO invitation for the event is sent in May. For the coming year, the University of Waterloo computing contest dates is February 16, 2022, for students in North and South America, and February 17, 2022, for students outside North and South America.
Registration for CCC:
Students can register for CCC from the website according to the deadlines mentioned. However, the deadline to register for Canadian Computing Competition CCC is February 8,2022, and the date for Canadian Computing Olympiad is not announced.
Format for CCC:
The format for CCC paper is divided into two categories: junior division paper and senior division paper. Both papers have five questions each, and each question contains 15 points. The first question is easier, and the range of difficulty increases from the first to the last question in both papers.
CCC Junior Division Questions:
- Question 1 and 2: contains straightforward questions, e.g., basic conditions and loops.
- Question 3 and 4: contains a bit challenging questions, e.g., combinations of loops, counting, and conditions.
- Question 5: contains some advanced questions, e.g., clever algorithms, efficient sorting, and recursion.
CCC Senior Division Questions:
- Question 1 and 2: contains basic algorithms, e.g., sorting, searching.
- Question 3 and 4: contains more advanced algorithms, e.g., mathematical reasoning, careful counting.
- Question 5: contains IOI level question.
Preparation and results:
Students are encouraged to prepare for CCC from the following material:
- Prepare from CCC online grader, which accesses to hands-on practice and previous contests.
- Students can prepare from past CCC contests by waterloo, test data, problems, and their solutions that are present from 1996 till now on the website.
- Students can prepare from the Competitive Programmers Handbook by Antti Laaksonen and from the book Competitive Programming by Halim and Halim.
- Students can prepare from some sample programs illustrating input and output. Here are the sample programs: C version, C++ version, Java version, Pascal version, PHP version, Perl version, Python 2 version, and Python 3 version.
- Some links to CCC software tools are given by the International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI) that may be helpful in stages 1 and 2 of the competition.
Prizes and Certificates:
The total marks of each division are 75 points in the competition. Contestants are graded only according to the number of questions effectively completed in anyone paper, either junior or senior. The prize for junior-level students is limited to certificates and medals. On the other hand, prizes for senior-level entries include certificates and invitation to attend Canadian Computing Olympiad (CCO).
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