Canada Jay Mathematical Competition (CJMC)
Save the date!
The next CJMC will be held on Thursday, November 21st, 2024.
Registration will open on September 3rd.
CJMC Exam Archive
Feel free to download the problems or solutions from previous years to sharpen your problem solving skills!
Get excited about math!
Canada Jay Mathematical Competition (CJMC) is a Canadian math competition open to students in grades K-8. This competition has been created by mathematicians from across Canada. It was renamed in 2022 from the original name Canadian Mathematical Gray Jay Competition (CMGC) to match the renaming of the Canada Jay bird.
The CJMC is 90 minutes long, consisting of 15 multiple-choice questions based on the grades 5-8 curriculum.
The problems are meant to be a fun fall activity for students and teachers to complement their math curriculum and build students’ problem solving skills. The CJMC offers engaging problems that allow for discussion after the competition and get students excited about math. The competition has 15 questions which take place over 90 minutes. It consists of 3 blocks of 5 questions with an increasing level of difficulty from beginning to end.
About the Canada Jay (bird):
In North America, official scientific, English, and French bird names are adjudicated by a dedicated committee of what is now known as the American Ornithological Society or “AOS” (and before 2016 as the American Ornithologists’ Union or “AOU”). “Canada Jay,” restored as the official English name in 2018, goes back to at least the early 1800s. In fact, by using “Gray Jay’ in its 1957 checklist, the AOU needlessly violated one of its own stated naming principles, namely that “traditional vernacular names should be retained whenever possible.” When a group of mostly Canadian ornithologists pointed out this error in late 2017 and proposed that “Canada Jay” be restored as the official name, the AOS graciously agreed and formally announced the restoration, a few months later, in July 2018.
– Dan Strickland, world expert on the Canada Jay
On November 16, 2016, at their College of Fellows Annual Dinner in the Canadian War Museum, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) stunned many Canadians (and some folks elsewhere in the world, too!) by choosing the third-place Canada Jay over the first-place Common Loon as their candidate to be Canada’s national bird. But you could not find a more Canadian bird. First, as a member of the corvid family (crows, ravens, magpies and jays), it is one of the smartest birds on the planet. Its brain-to-body ratio is equivalent to that of the chimpanzee and dolphin and nearly rivals that of the human. Second, the Canada Jay is extremely tough and hardy. By not leaving the country in winter, it has adapted itself to not only surviving our harsh Canadian winters but breeding then as well. This bird is known to incubate its eggs at -30 Celsius! Third, Canada Jays are extremely friendly, readily coming down to perch on open hands, even without food, and on ski poles, cameras and spotting scopes, without any training whatsoever. Fourth, unlike many songbirds in the world, Canada Jays are not promiscuous and the mates do not cheat on each other. The pair remains together year-round, often flying together everywhere and even perching side by side, touching each other. So, we’ve got “smart,” “hardy,” “friendly” and “loyal.” What better way to describe the typical Canadian, eh?
– David M. Bird, Emeritus Professor of Wildlife Biology, McGill University, and Leader of Team Canada Jay
