Housed within the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, the Center for Education in Mathematics and Computing administers many Canadian Mathematics Competiions written by more than 200 000 students internationally each year.
Marc Garneau students achieved commendable results in the Pascal, Cayley, and Fermat contests, multiple-choice examinations lasting 75 minutes each designed to challenge students to use their problem-solving skills. This year, close to 25 000 students in Ontario registered for the three contests.
Gold medallists for these contests are selected from each school according to their contest scores. Ninth grade students Morris Chen, Defilia To, Rebecca Wong, and Victor Yu received gold medals; their combined scores placed the MGCI team as one of the top-performing schools with a perfect score of 450/450. Grade ten contestants’ commendable scores landed MGCI as the second placed school in Canada, with a score of 426/450.
Eleventh grade student Jerry Zhou in grade 11 won a gold medal score and regional champion prize, while the combined eleventh grade MGCI contestants landed the school a second-place finish with 430/450. Also from MGCI, David R. Wang, Jessica Cao, Amelia Zhou, Simon Huang, Mike Li, Susan Su, Tariq Haji, and Jerry Wu were featured on the contest’s Honour Roll.
Despite challenges earlier in the year due to the ban on extracurriculars, the math contests went ahead on 21 February in periods 2 and 3 thanks to the efforts of Ms. Chan and Mr. McMaster.
“As a team, we are definitely among the best, [even though] none of us are really the best at math in Canada,” says veteran competitor and Math Society President Jerry Wu. “We are able to achieve amazing result because we are overall really good whereas in other schools you have just one or two high scorers. [MGCI’s] math program is very strong and the teachers are supportive. Everyone helps each other so very few are left behind.”
