CJMC 2024

Wrap Up
Good work everyone! The 2024 Canada Jay Mathematical Competition has completed. Awards, prize draws and results are all ready.
The competition took place on Thursday, November 21st in Canada and the Americas (anywhere in North/South American time zones), and on Friday, November 22nd elsewhere in the world.
To see the top award winners for many divisions and grades, choose the Awards tab above. We’d especially like to congratulate the 75 students who earned perfect scores this year!
Please also read our Media Release.
Teachers/organizers: You can access your students’ scores, certificates and rankings through your Portal account.
Independent students: Your results and certificates are also available through your Portal Account.
Statistics
Mathematics competitions, such as the CJMC, often have lower scores than students expect because they are much harder. There is no “passing grade” or “A/A+/B” grades. What competitors do is compare themselves to their peers, (i.e. the competition!). So instead of seeing that you got 48/80 as a raw percentage, you should instead consider your percentile, or ranking among the other competitors. Use the information below to give context and perspective to your score, within your grade group.
Grade | Top Score /80 | Top Decile /80 | Top Quartile /80 | Median Score /80 |
---|---|---|---|---|
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69 | 51 | 38 | 23 |
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75 | 57 | 38 | 25 |
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80 | 58 | 43 | 30 |
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80 | 68 | 53 | 38 |
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80 | 69 | 56 | 42 |
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80 | 64 | 49 | 36 |
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80 | 74 | 63 | 48 |
Overall | 80 | 68 | 52 | 36 |
This year, a total of 75 students received a perfect 80/80 score. Well done!
Overview
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.
Want to know more about our namesake, the Canada Jay (bird)?
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