The 2021 Canadian Open Mathematics Competition was a huge Success

OTTAWA, ON – The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) is pleased to announce the results of the 2021 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC). Over 5,000 students wrote the Open on October 28, 2021. For the 2021 COMC, in partnership with the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN – Beijing), more than 700 high school students in China registered to write the competition. This year, the CMS also formed  new partnerships with Magic Square, MathsRFun, and Transition Labs University Preparatory School which ran our competitions in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, and India, respectively, with great success! Many international students were excited to participate in a Canadian competition for the first time and more than 80 students in these countries participated.

Due to the global pandemic, the COMC was offered in two formats this year, paper and online. This allowed for students who were participating in remote learning to be able to participate.

The Chair of the COMC committee, Dr. Robert Woodrow is pleased with the participation rate given the extra challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic:

COMC 2021 was available in two formats on-line and in person, to be able to accommodate participation during the pandemic. This year added more international partners which promoted the contest in their regions. Over 900 students participated internationally, largely due to our partners. Of the 5035 official non-void papers, there were 8 with a perfect score, and none with zero. The contest provided interesting challenging problems, which resulted in a median score of 29/80. Two of the part B problems proved to be more challenging for students than expected. The question on gender is optional, but it appears that roughly twice as many participants  identified as male than female, both  for all participants and looking at those in Grade XI, XII, and CEGEP.

Thanks to the funding from RBC Future Launch program, the CMS was able to offer the competition free of charge to Black and Indigenous students for the 2021 competition, an initiative that the CMS will continue in the years to come. Thanks to additional funding for the 2021 cycle, we were able to offer free registration for a limited number of girls from each school in Canada. 

The COMC is the initial qualifier for the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), which will take place on March 10, 2021. Students can also qualify to write the CMO through the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Qualifying Repêchage which will take place between February 15 and 22, 2021. The COMC also provides opportunities for selection to the Canadian Team to the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO). Nearly 300 high schools participated in the competition, which was marked electronically using Crowdmark again this year.

2021 COMC Winners

Canadian Champions

Gold	Warren Bei, Vancouver Learning Network, Vancouver, BC Evan Lu, Hon. Vincent Massey S. S. , Windsor, ON Léo Vanciu, Marianopolis College, Westmount, QC Kaixin Wang, Magee S.S., Vancouver, BC Haozhe Yang, Walter Murray Collegiate, Saskatoon, SK Ming Yang, Brophy College Preparatory, Phoenix, AZ Zixiang Zhou, London Central Secondary School, London, ON
Silver	Marvin Mao, Bergen County Academies, United States Kevin Min, SpringLight Education Institute, United States Jason Zhang, ICAE, United States
Bronze	Grace Xu, Crofton House School, Vancouver, BC Joey Zou, Woodlands School, Mississauga, ON
Honourable Mentions	Jiarui Cao, Abbey Park H.S., Oakville, ON William Dai, Marc Garneau C.I., Toronto, ON Jiang Xu (Justin) Wan, University Hill Secondary School, Vancouver, BC Xuezhi Wang, Royal St. George’s College, Toronto, ON Daniel Yang, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, ON James Yang, Iroquois Ridge High School, Oakville, ON

International Students

Gold	Kavan Doctor, SpringLight Education Institute, United States
Silver	Jason Mao, Bergen County Academies, United States
Bronze	Alexander Wang, Bergen County Academies, United States
Honourable Mentions	Lu Chang, Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School, China Rohan Das, BASIS Independent Silicon Valley, United States Preston Fu, Saratoga High School, United States Jeffrey Hu, Saratoga High School, United States Lincoln Liu, Sha Tin College, China

For more information on top scorers in each province and different grade levels, click here.

About the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS)

Founded in 1945, the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) promotes the advancement, discovery, learning and application of mathematics. The CMS promotes mathematics through a rich array of activities including scientific meetings, publications, awards, prizes, grants, camps and competitions.

For more information on the COMC, please contact:

Dr. Robert Woodrow Chair, CMS-COMC Committee Dept. Of Mathematics, University of Calgary Tel: (403) 220-6325 woodrow@ucalgary.ca

or

Jessica Wallace Meetings and Events Organizer Canadian Mathematical Society Tel: (613) 733-2662 ext. 733 comc@cms.math.ca