Prizes and Awards – COMC 2026
Performance-based Awards
Awards are only given to official participants (see our Eligibility page for details).
There are two divisions: the Competitive Division, which is only for participants who write the exam at the designated time slot and are from within Canada (or Canadian citizens or permanent residents writing outside Canada).
We also have the Global Division, which is for non-Canadian participants writing the competition outside of Canada, or for students who write the exam outside of the designated time slot.
Please note as of 2026 to be considered for the competitive division, CMS has a designated time slot for students to write the exam: the student must begin writing between 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. EDT (UTC-4) and finish no more than 2.5 hours after beginning.
Competitive Division award categories:
We have award categories for Best in Competitive Division, Best in Province and Best in Region, as well as for students at each grade level. For example:
- Competitive Champions: everyone competes for this, the most prestigious category
- Best in Competitive Division, Grade 12 or Cégep: All grade 12 and Cégep-1 students in Canada compete for this
- Best in BC (overall): all official participants (regardless of grade) in BC
- Best in BC, Grade 10: all Grade 10 students in BC
- Best in Toronto (overall): all official participants in Toronto-area schools
- Best in Toronto, Grade 11: All grade 11 students in Toronto compete for this category
- etc.
The top six unique scores in any category earn awards: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Honourable Mention.
* A cash prize pool will be divided among the top students in this division.
Global Division awards:
The top official participants from outside Canada, who are not Canadian citizens (or permanent residents of Canada), or any student who has not written the exam at the designated time slot, are considered for the Global Championship awards. There are award categories broken up by grade, as in the Competitive division. The award categories are: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honourable Mention.
The CMS reserves the right to suspend awards or limit the number of awards in any category where there is a very low level of participation or to require a minimum limit score for awards.
Invitational Competitions and Math Team Canada
The COMC is truly an “open” competition which welcomes anyone to write. Those meeting basic eligibility criteria are considered official participants. Official participation in the COMC can lead to invitations to higher-level competitions with greater national or international prestige.
Beyond the COMC, however, competitions are by invitation only, based in large part on students’ track records in the COMC and competitions from earlier years. To be invited to Canadian competitions beyond the COMC, students usually need to be Canadian citizens (or permanent residents) but might be studying in Canada or abroad.
When the official results of the COMC are released (usually in early January), the top 100 (all figures are approximate) qualifying students are invited to the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), which is the top national-level competition.
The CMO is a conventionally-supervised three-hour competition with five questions. It is usually held in late March. The CMO is the most important competition for those seeking to earn a spot on Math Team Canada (MTC), which is the group of students we select to represent Canada at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in the summer.
Additionally, the Canadian Mathematical Society invites and supports girls for the Canadian team we send to Europe for the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in April.
In early March, we also invite strong students to represent Canada in the Asia-Pacific Mathematical Olympiad (APMO). APMO is conducted like the CMO – in your own school supervised by your teacher.
The IMO itself is normally held in July and each year is hosted in a different country where hundreds of the world’s best students gather to compete and go on local outings. The IMO exam is just six questions, split over two days (a total of nine hours of testing), so it is tough! Prior to the IMO itself, the selected Canadian team (plus some alternates) gather for one or two weeks of intensive training at a Training Camp led by former Math Team Canada members and leaders.
Canada’s world ranking is typically very strong. If you want to reach for the very top (like Canadians Warren Bei, who had a perfect score at the IMO in 2025, or Alex Song, one of the best the IMO has ever seen), make your COMC effort a strong one!
Scholarship Opportunities
High-performing problem solvers in Canadian mathematics competitions are highly prized by our universities. At the CMS, we strongly encourage such students graduating from secondary school to consider staying in Canada for undergraduate studies. Some Canadian universities† have made us aware of special Scholarship Opportunities for such students.
Read more here.
COMC competition results will be shared with our partner universities to help them consider offering academic scholarships to high-potential students.
Camps
Approximately 24 Canadian students in grade 10 or earlier with strong performance on the COMC will be invited to the summer CMS Canada Math Camp (CMC) hosted by the University of Toronto.
Canadian students who demonstrate solid performance at their grade level in their region or province may be invited to a summer regional CMS Math Camp staged in collaboration with a CMS university partner in their province.
Participation Certificates (Quartiles)
When the final results are announced, teachers/organizers will be able to log into their accounts to download and print the Participation certificates for all their officially-competing students.
Certificate titles are based on the quartile into which the student’s score falls:
- 1st quartile = Performance with Distinction
- 2nd quartile = Performance with Honours
- 3rd or 4th quartile = Certificate of Participation
Teacher Appreciation Prizes
In recognition of the valued contributions made by teachers in facilitating COMC student participation, teachers in Canada will be eligible for a limited number of generously donated prizes from Maplesoft and from the Canadian Mathematical Society.
Prize winners will be contacted by email after being randomly selected from the pool of eligible teachers.
All teachers in Canada who have registered students (official participants) for the COMC exam using their school account and unique email address are eligible for the Teacher Appreciation prize draws, provided all ordered exams are paid in full by the payment deadline.
Maplesoft is pleased to provide a limited number of eligible teachers with a complimentary 1-year license of their mathematics software to use in their classrooms. While supplies last, this offer is available to teachers in Canada who complete and pay for their COMC exam order by the payment deadline.
A Taste of Mathematics is a booklet series published by the Canadian Mathematical Society. They are designed as enrichment materials for high school students with an interest in and aptitude for mathematics. Some booklets in the series also cover the materials useful for mathematical competitions at national and international levels.
The Canadian Mathematical Society will be providing a number of printed copies of ATOM volumes to randomly chosen Canadian teachers participating in the COMC.