The Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) is a mathematics competition held in Canada that is one of the most often-used ways to determine participants for the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad.[1] It is run by the Canadian Mathematical Society and sponsored by Sun Life Financial. The competition is targeted mainly at senior-level students, though younger students often participate.[2]
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The COMC was founded in 1996 by current chair Larry Rice.
"Official" qualifiers for the COMC must satisfy the following criteria:
Participants (known as "unofficial" participants) who do not satisfy these criteria cannot win any rewards.[3] Students from foreign nations like the USA can participate as "unofficial" participants through a mathematics program in their school or otherwise.
The annually held COMC is two and a half hours long with 12 problems. The questions are divided into two sections; the first section, known as Part A, has 8 problems and generally has easier problems, with each question being 5 points. Part B has 4 problems, and each problem is worth 10 points. The total score is out of 80, and the cutoff for CMO qualification is generally somewhere around 70.[4] Approximately 7,000 people take the COMC annually.[5][6]
Calculators of any sort are not permitted on the COMC.
There are three types of awards for scoring well on the COMC.