The Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), is, as the name suggests, the nation

Nation

A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...

al mathematical

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 Olympiad

Olympiad

An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch....

 of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is run by the Canadian Mathematical Society

Canadian Mathematical Society

The Canadian Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and education in Canada.It was originally conceived in June 1945 as the Canadian Mathematical Congress...

 and sponsored by the company Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial Inc. is an international financial services company known primarily as a life insurance company. Based in Toronto, Canada, Sun Life and its partners provide insurance, retirement and investment solutions for individuals and businesses around the world including Canada, the United...

. The Olympiad plays several roles in Canadian mathematics competitions, most notably being Canada's main team selection process for the International Mathematical Olympiad

International Mathematical Olympiad

The International Mathematical Olympiad is an annual six-problem, 42-point mathematical olympiad for pre-collegiate students and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except in 1980...

.

Qualification

Approximately 70 to 80 people qualify for and write the CMO each year.

Qualification for the CMO is usually through the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge

Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge

The Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge is a mathematics competition held in Canada that is one of the most often-used ways to determine participants for the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad. It is run by the Canadian Mathematical Society and sponsored by Sun Life Financial...

, though only "official" participants of that contest can enter. Generally, the cutoff for the CMO on that contest is in the 70s.

Contest Layout

The contest is three hours long.
There are 5 questions on the CMO, each worth 7 marks, for a total of 35 points. Each problem is graded the same way as it is on the IMO.

From 1969 to 1972, the CMO was 10 questions long. In 1973, this was shortened to 7 questions. It alternated between 7 and 8 before finally stabilizing to five questions in 1979.

Two graders will grade the questions. If there is a dispute between the graders by more than one point, they will reconsider the problem until a consensus was reached.

The grading is considered as follows:

• If no work was done or very insignificant progress was made, the answer is graded zero.
• If significant progress is made, marks of 1, 2, or 3 will be given, depending on the amount progress toward solving the problem.
• Marks of 4 or 5 are given for answers that are essentially correct, but are poorly presented or lack showing of work in some areas.
• If the solution has a minor error that can be trivially fixed, it is given a 6.
• An absolutely perfect solution is awarded a mark of 7. This might be given if there is an error in the writing that does not affect the solution in any meaningful way.

Awards

There are several different types of rewards for doing well on the CMO:

• Six people are selected each year for the Canadian International Mathematical Olympiad team, the pinnacle of high school
  High school
  High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
  
   mathematical competition.
• Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded based the percentile
  Percentile
  In statistics, a percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall. For example, the 20th percentile is the value below which 20 percent of the observations may be found...
  
   you scored in.
• The person who scores first place receives $2000 in cash. Second place receives $1500, and third place receives $1000. Another six students receive honourable mentions, and $500. Students receiving cash prizes must not have written the Putnam Competition.

Winners

Year	Winner	City	School
2011	Mariya Sardarli	Edmonton, AB
2010	Alex Song	Waterloo, ON	Vincent Massey Secondary School Vincent Massey Secondary School Hon. Vincent Massey Secondary School, commonly known simply as Massey, is a public high school located in the South Windsor neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The school is under the jurisdiction of the Greater Essex County District School Board, one of the four school boards in...
2009	Jonathan Schneider	Toronto, ON	University of Toronto Schools University of Toronto Schools The University of Toronto Schools is an independent secondary day school affiliated with the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
2008	Chen Sun	London, ON	A.B. Lucas Secondary School A.B. Lucas Secondary School A.B. Lucas Secondary School is a secondary school located in the northern end of London, Ontario, Canada.The school was named after Dr. A.B. Lucas, who was recognized for his contribution to education in London. In April, 1962, Hugh Murray became the first principal...
2007	Yan Li	Scarborough, ON	Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute
2006	Dong Uk (David) Rhee	Edmonton, AB	McNally Composite High School
2005	Peng Shi	Agincourt, ON	Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute The Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute is a secondary school located in Scarborough, Ontario at 2300 Pharmacy Avenue. The school was opened in the fall of 1964 when there was only farmland around it, and as the population in the area grew, so did the school...
2004	Yufei Zhao	Don Mills, ON	Don Mills Collegiate Institute Don Mills Collegiate Institute Don Mills Collegiate Institute is a high school in the community of Don Mills in Toronto. It serves an ethnically diverse student population of approximately 1000. As of 2006, 66% of students speak a first language other than English...
2003	János Kramár	Toronto, ON	University of Toronto Schools
2002	Tianyi Han	Toronto, ON	Woburn Collegiate Institute Woburn Collegiate Institute Woburn Collegiate Institute is a non-semestered secondary school on Ellesmere Road in the Scarborough district of Toronto. Its motto is Let the Zeal for Learning Flourish.- History :...
2001	Daniel Brox	West Vancouver, BC	Sentinel Secondary School Sentinel Secondary School Sentinel Secondary School is a secondary school located in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of three public secondary schools in the West Vancouver district . The school has a grass field, two baseball diamonds, three street hockey courts, and three tennis courts...
2000	Daniel Brox	West Vancouver, BC	Sentinel Secondary School
1999	Jimmy Chui	North York, ON	Earl Haig Secondary School
1998	Adrian Chan	Toronto, ON	Upper Canada College
1997	Sabin Cautis	North York, ON	Earl Haig Secondary School
1996	Byung-Kyu Chun	Edmonton, AB	Harry Ainlay Composite High School
1995	Donny Cheung	Winnipeg, MB	St. John's-Ravenscourt School
1994	Kevin Purbhoo	Toronto, ON	Northern Secondary School
1993	Naoki Sato	Toronto, ON	University of Toronto Schools
1992	J.P. Grossman	Toronto, ON	Northern Secondary School
1991	Ian Goldberg Ian Goldberg Ian Avrum Goldberg is a cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is best known for breaking Netscape's implementation of SSL , and for his role as Chief Scientist of Radialpoint , a Canadian software company...	Toronto, ON	University of Toronto Schools
1991	J.P. Grossman	Toronto, ON	Northern Secondary School
1990	J.P. Grossman	Toronto, ON	Northern Secondary School
1989	Eli Michael Lapell	Scarborough, ON	Woburn Collegiate Institute
1988	Gurraj Sangha	Windsor, ON	Hon.W.C. Kennedy Collegiate Institute
1987	Ravi D. Vakil Ravi Vakil Ravi D. Vakil is an American-Canadian mathematician working in algebraic geometry.Vakil attended high school at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he won several mathematical contests and olympiads. After earning a BSc and MSc from the University of Toronto in 1992, he...	Etobicoke, ON	Martingrove Collegiate Institute
1986	Ravi D. Vakil	Etobicoke, ON	Martingrove Collegiate Institute
1985	Minh Tue Vo	Montréal, QC	École Secondaire St-Luc
1984	Minh Tue Vo	Montréal, QC	École Secondaire St-Luc
1983	William James Rucklidge	Toronto, ON	Toronto French School
1982	Alastair Rucklidge	Toronto, ON	Toronto French School
1981	David Walter Ash	Thunder Bay, ON	Fort William Collegiate Institute
1980	John James Chew	Toronto, ON	University of Toronto Schools
1979	William Ross Brown	Rockcliffe Park, ON	Ashbury College
1978	Michael Albert Michael H. Albert Michael Henry Albert is a mathematician and computer scientist, originally from Canada, and currently an associate professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. His varied research interests include combinatorics and combinatorial game theory.He received his B.Math in 1981 from the...	Penetanguishene, ON	Penetanguishene Secondary School
1977	Igor E. Rivin	Windsor, ON	Vincent Massey Secondary School
1976	Rajiv Gupta	Thunder Bay, ON	Sir Winston Churchill C.V.I.
1975	Patrick Smith	Montreal, QC	Monkland High School
1975	James Williams	Ottawa, ON	Merivale High School
1974	James Williams	Ottawa, ON	Merivale High School
1973	Alan Listoe	Saskatoon, SK	Aden Bowman Collegiate
1973	Luc St. Louis	Montréal, QC	CEGEP de Maisonneuve
1972	Donald T. Kersey	Hamilton, ON	Hill Park Secondary School
1971	Bruce Nielson	Vancouver, BC	Point Grey Secondary School
1970	John Spouge	Vancouver, BC	St. George's School
1969	Karl Morin-Strom Karl Morin-Strom Karl Arvid Morin-Strom is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1990 as a member of the New Democratic Party.... (nee Karl Strom)	Sault Ste-Marie, ON	Sir James Dunn Secondary School