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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Eligibility and Registration Inquiries

Yes. The CJMC is a competition that is open to any student with an interest in and grasp of mathematics. 

All registrations for the CJMC must come from schools, through teachers or proctors. Individual students (and their parents) may ask any nearby school if they are participating in the CJMC and if they are willing to add an exam in order to have the student participate at the school on exam day.

The CMS may have writing centres across Canada at our partner universities for students who are unable to write the exam at their own school. We will also have online writing centres for those students who cannot participate through a school. 

For more information, please see our CJMC Eligibility Page. 

Typically, registrations for the CJMC come from schools or an official competition writing centre (OCWC), through teachers or proctors.

Individual students (and their parents) may ask any nearby school if they are participating in the CJMC and if they are willing to add an exam in order to have the student participate at the school on exam day. 

The CMS has some limited space at writing centres across Canada run by our partner universities. Look for the "Student Self Registration" option on the CJMC home page to register for this.

There are no grade eligibility requirements for the CJMC. However, the competition is aimed at grades 5-8. Any grade can write the competition but students in grades 9 and above are considered unofficial. Students in grades 8 and below are official if all other eligibility criteria are met.

Teachers use their account on the Teacher's Portal to place an order for exams; payment can be online or sent to us via cheque. Teachers may choose from the online format, or the paper format. Paper exams are either couriered to the school, or emailed as a PDF to be printed locally. Online exams are taken directly online using a computer. 

Students whose schools are not participating, or who do not attend a conventional school may choose to register and pay as individuals using the Student Self-Registration method. 

Registration can be completed by visiting the CJMC 2022 page and selecting from our registration options. 

For schools in Canada, the online version has a minimum of 3 exams, and the paper option has a minimum of 5.

For schools outside of Canada, the online version has a minimum of 5 exams, and the paper option has a minimum of 10. 

Yes, tutoring centres and home school teachers can sign up students if schools are not participating. Please keep in mind that a certified teacher who is not related to the student will need to be arranged. Parents can proctor students, but students would be considered unofficial in this case. 

The student must either be supervised in a school or location that the CMS has approved as an Official Competition Writing Centre (OCWC),  or must be supervised for the entirety of the exam by a proctor from a registered OCWC or a certified teacher under the ministry of education.

SCHOOL REGISTRATION:

1. Printed exams shipped to you: Deadline for registration is Monday November 3rd, at 11:59 PM EST.  Orders that are not paid at that time may be changed at CMS discretion to digital delivery instead of print shipments. Schools not verified as official writing centers will also be changed to digital delivery.
2. Digital delivery of print exams: Deadline for registration is Sunday Nov 13th at 11:59pm EST.  Exams and other material is sent as PDF to teacher's email. The exams must be printed locally at the school. Orders that are not paid by that time may be cancelled at CMS discretion. Exams will be emailed on Tuesday, November 15th and/or Wednesday, November 16th.
3. Online exams:  Deadline for registration is
Sunday Nov 13th at 11:59pm EST. Access codes and URLs are shared with teachers through teacher portals by Tuesday Nov 15th. Teachers proctor their remote students online as they work.

STUDENT SELF REGISTRATION:

A small number of spots are available for Canadian students whose schools are not participating in the CJMC. Students can register and pay as individuals and be proctored by our university writing partners for official participation. 

Deadline for registration is Sunday Nov 13th at 11:59pm EST, but space is likely to run out before that. Registrations are not complete until marked paid on our system.

Please see the CJMC Eligibility page.

Modes of writing the 2022 CJMC

Printed exams are delivered to the school or the writing centre by courier, or may be sent electronically for printing at the school (digital delivery). The answer pages are then returned by courier.

Teachers may order online exams to be written on computers in the classroom which saves costs on paper exams.

Please see our instructional video to understand the online procedure and see what the students will be working with. Please note: the video uses the former name of the Canada Jay Mathematical Competition (The Canadian Mathematical Gray Jay Competition). 

Online CJMC

If writing the competition online, it must be written on Thursday November 17th during the school day for students in Canada and the Americas, and on Friday November 18th for students in other parts of the world.

Due to Covid-19, it may not be possible for students to write the exam at school. In this case, teachers may arrange for students to write remotely, provided that both teachers and students have access to an electronic device. 

CMS has created a new platform to host the CJMC online competition. Students can complete the CJMC on our platform in the classroom or from home while being observed by a certified teacher from an official competition writing centre (OCWC).  In the absence of such supervision, the students would be unofficial and not eligible for awards.

The CJMC online platform is browser-based. As a teacher or supervising proctor you will require access to a tablet or a laptop/desktop computer.

To access the online exam, you will need Access Keys and Codes for yourself and your students. These will be available in the Teacher Portal (where you ordered your exams).  If you are a lead teacher with several proctors, you will want to collect your school’s Keys and Codes and divide them up for your proctors.

For 2022, the Keys and Codes will be available on your teacher portal by Tuesday, November 15th.

Please watch our detailed orientation video to show you how proctors prepare and perform an in-person session with their students in a classroom. This video refers to the CJMC under its old name, The Canadian Mathematical Grey Jay Competition, but still contains relevant information about the proctoring process. 

If you are proctoring remotely (via the internet), then it is your responsibility to maintain suitable monitoring of your student during the exam (this is typically with Zoom or similar product) – CMS cannot assist you with that.

Before the exam, your teacher or proctor will contact you with access codes to write the exam in our online platform.

If you are writing remotely, your teacher or proctor should also share a Zoom link or other equivalent proctoring software. You must write the exam under appropriate supervision to be considered official.

If you used the Student Self-Registration you will be proctored by one of our university-based writing centres. We will email you the URL for the online competition, the Zoom link for your proctor, and your access keys on Monday or Tuesday before the exam. If you don't have it by Tuesday, check your Spam folder and if you still can't find it, email us at cjmc@cms.math.ca or phone us at (613) 733-2662, ext. 710.

Yes. Feel free to adjust this as you see appropriate. Do not send them the Sitting Code - give that to them during your zoom session instead.

Dear {{Student name}},

Your 2022 CJMC “Student Key” is {{StudentKey}}.

You will need this on Thursday, November 17th starting at {{12pm}}, when we will be writing the Canada Jay Mathematics Competition.  It’s a 90 minute multiple-choice test written online while I proctor you through Zoom.  

Please connect online to the Zoom no later than {{11:45am}} so we can all go over the rules and get connected to the exam.  The Zoom link is [xxxxxxx]

You'll want to have scrap paper or a notebook to do your calculations.  Remember that the use of phones or calculators is not permitted at any point during the exam.

If you have any questions or problems, you can contact me.

Thanks - see you then.

Exam Format and Procedures

The 2021 CJMC will be held on Thursday November 17th in Canada and the Americas, and on Friday November 18th elsewhere in the world. 

The competition is one and a half hours (90 minutes) in length. 

Mobile phones, calculators or other electronic devices are not permitted. Students writing the exam "online" may use a computer or tablet only to access the exam, and an electronic device such as a cell phone may be used for supervision of a student writing remotely. Other uses of such devices are prohibited.

Yes, dictionaries are allowed during the exam with proctor supervision.

The CJMC exam is the same for students at all grade levels and consists of three sections:

  1. Five introductory questions 
  2. Five more challenging questions 
  3. Five challenging questions

All questions are multiple choice.

If taking the competition on paper, each competition booklet will come with an answer key and cover sheet that is filled in by the students. This form will be mailed back to the CMS office for processing. 

If writing online, the online system will store the answers for subsequent automatic grading.

No. The time for the CJMC is flexible and may be taken at any time during the official exam date (November 17th for schools within Canada and the Americas and November 18th for schools located elsewhere for 2022).

Students writing online: The competition will be marked by the online platform. Marks will come out once all paper copies have been received and marked. 

Schools in Canada writing paper exams: a courier will arrive at each school on the day after the exam (Friday, November 18th) to pick up the package of answer pages. Each school will have a pre-paid courier envelopes, which are pre-addressed to the CMS Office

Schools outside Canada writing paper exams: the CMS will provide you with a Canadian address where you will need to send the cover sheets and answer page by courier at your own cost.

If exams are written on paper, they will be marked by the Canadian Mathematical Society.

Yes. For paper exams, teachers can specify how many exams in English and/or French are required when placing the order. For online exams the student will choose at the start of the exam whether to write an English or French exam.

Payment and Shipment Inquiries

Online within Canada: $10.00 CAD per exam (minimum order of 3 exams).

Paper Exams within Canada: $12.00 CAD per exam (minimum order of 5 exams).

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

Paper Exams International: $17.00 USD per exam (minimum order of 10 exams)

Online payment is preferred. Online credit card purchases are processed using Paypal (a Paypal account is not required, but can also be used). Payments can also be made by cheque or money order received by the deadline.

All orders have to be paid by Sunday, November 13th, 2022. Additionally, any order for paper exams to be shipped by us must be paid by November 3rd or they will be automatically switched to digital delivery (emailed PDFs to be printed locally). The CMS reserves the right to cancel any order which remains unpaid after the payment deadline. If you anticipate your payment to be late, please contact us at contests@cms.math.ca.

Once payment is received, a receipt is automatically emailed to you. You can also log into your school account and see the order status, and reprint an invoice or receipt.

We ship all the paper exams out to schools a week before the competition, so that it arrives a 2-4 days before the competition date. Exams that are delivered as PDFs to schools to print locally are sent out by email to teachers 2 days before the competition.

For printed paper exams: If the order size is reduced prior to printing and shipment of the exams and still meets the minimum order requirements, we will refund the cost of the canceled exams, less a 10% administration fee until November 3rd, 2022. If you wish to reduce your number of exams after they have been shipped, we will not issue a refund.

For online exams (taken on a computer), and PDF exams (emailed and printed locally) : If the order size is reduced prior to November 13th and still meets the minimum order requirements, we will refund the cost of the canceled exams, less a 10% administration fee. 

Please see our Inclusion Initiative page.

When teachers at schools deemed 'Official' order exams, they can declare students who qualify for the Inclusion Initiative when ordering. There is a maximum of 5 exams per school, unless your school contacts us directly with more information. Students who Self-Register do not qualify for this initiative.

Login and Account Inquiries

School accounts are associated with the email addresses of the past organizer and/or the department head. If one of those email addresses is known to you, you can trigger a password reset email message to that email address by using the "Forgot your log-in information" function on the login page. In addition to resetting your password, this function can help you find all School IDs associated with your email address.

If no one has access to either of those email accounts, or you do not know what they are, then please contact the CMS office by telephone at +1 (613) 733-2662 ext. 733. Please be prepared to provide information that will assist in confirming your identity.

Click on "new school" on the login page.

Please email the CMS office to change a school address. In your email, please include: your current school address, the new school address, and your school ID.

No. For security purposes, the CMS will only ship to addresses that have been confirmed from authenticated schools. Please ensure your shipping address is correct before ordering.

Once you log into your school account, click on “edit contact information”.

Email the CMS office and include the previous school name, location, your email address and the school ID.

Please email or phone the CMS office at +1 (613) 733-2662 and we will be happy to assist you.

Yes, you can use your account for both COMC and CJMC. 

The Results

When the final results are announced, teachers/organizers will be able to log in to the Teacher Portal to download and print participation certificates for all of their students.
Awards certificates are only provided for official participants who achieve a high ranking, and are available for teachers/organizers to download and print. 

Teachers can access all their students' scores online using the Teacher Portal once marking is complete.

Students who self-registered will receive their results by email at the same time as everyone else's scores are released.

Individual scores are not shown publicly for privacy reasons. If you are a teacher missing any scores, or you are self-registered and didn't receive the email (check your Spam folder first), please contact the CMS office by email at contests@cms.math.ca.

Anyone writing the CJMC in Canada is eligible for a participation prize from the CMS which is drawn randomly. Your chances of winning depend on the number of prizes and the number of students writing the CJMC. 

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