Competitions · Mathematics · CIMC
CIMC, the Canadian Intermediate Mathematics Contest.
Nine questions in two hours, six wanting only an answer and three wanting the whole argument written out. For most students it is the first Waterloo paper where how you explain a solution counts toward the mark, which makes it the bridge between the multiple-choice contests and Euclid.
At a glance
What the contest is, and who sits it.
CEMC has run this series since 1963, and more than 230,000 students worldwide have taken part across its history. CIMC is the intermediate paper in it.
- Organiser
- The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) at the University of Waterloo, home to the largest independent faculty of mathematics in the world
- Who sits it
- Students in grades 9 and 10
- Syllabus
- Most questions are built on the grade 10 curriculum and earlier, so the difficulty comes from how the material is used rather than from unfamiliar content
- Format
- Nine questions in two parts: six answer-only and three requiring a full written solution
- Duration
- 120 minutes
- Marks
- 60 in total - 5 for each answer-only question and 10 for each full-solution question, so the two halves are worth exactly the same
- Marking
- Judged on completeness, clarity and the working shown. A correct answer without a clear and complete solution will not receive full marks
- Language
- English
- Where
- On paper, in person, at a partner school
- Registration
- Through the school, which registers candidates as a group. CEMC publishes a fee of $14 per entrant
- Calculators
- Permitted for numerical work, but not models with internet access, device communication, stored formulas or notes, a computer algebra system, or dynamic geometry software
The step up
Why the written half changes everything.
Thirty of the sixty marks come from three questions where the reasoning is read. Students arriving from Pascal, Cayley or Fermat have never been marked this way before.
Half the paper is prose
Three questions at ten marks each account for exactly half the total. However strong a student is at multiple choice, half of a CIMC score depends on communicating a solution in written English.
Right answers can still lose marks
CEMC marks on completeness, clarity and the process shown. An answer that is correct but arrives without a legible chain of reasoning will not get full credit, which is a genuinely unfamiliar rule at this stage.
Wrong answers can still earn them
The reverse holds too, and it is the more encouraging half: a solution that goes astray at the end still earns credit for the correct reasoning that preceded it. Nothing on a multiple-choice paper works like that.
Thirteen minutes a question
Two hours across nine questions sounds generous until the three written ones are accounted for. The answer-only half has to be banked briskly so the written half gets the time it needs to be set out properly.
Awards
Certificates, medals, honour rolls and prize money.
CIMC awards more than most contests at this level, including cash prizes for the strongest official Canadian entrants.
Certificate of Distinction
Awarded to the top 25% of entrants - the threshold CEMC applies across its whole family of contests, which is what makes a CIMC result directly comparable with a Gauss or a Euclid one.
The school champion
A Contest Medal goes to the champion at each participating school, decided by the CEMC executive committee. In a school entering a full cohort this is a scarce distinction independent of the global percentile.
Four honour rolls
Top scorers are named on regional, provincial, Canadian and international honour rolls. Strong results from unofficial entrants at Canadian schools are listed separately rather than merged into the main roll.
Prize money at the top
The five highest-scoring official Canadian entrants each receive a medal and $300. It is one of the few contests at intermediate level that attaches money to a result at all.
Teams
The optional school standing.
A school can choose to be ranked as a team as well as individually. It is optional, so entering that way is a decision rather than a default.
Five scores make a team
A school’s team score is the sum of its five highest individual results. That rewards a school with a strong group rather than one exceptional student, and makes entering a wider cohort worthwhile.
Three levels in Canada
Canadian schools are ranked at zone, provincial and national level, with Canadian Champion, Provincial Champion and Zone Champion certificates awarded at each tier.
International schools ranked too
Schools outside Canada take part in the rankings and appear on the team honour rolls, so an overseas cohort is measured against a comparable field rather than against Canadian schools.
A route to Waterloo
Waterloo may select students from among the award winners for direct admission with a full scholarship. That possibility is the reason many international schools enter the series at all.
Season
How the year runs.
CIMC sits in November, alongside CSMC on the same two days, several months before the April contests.
Registration closes
Schools register their candidates. For the 2026 cycle the deadline was 22 October.
Contest day
North and South America sit on the Wednesday, other regions on the Thursday - 18 and 19 November for the 2026 cycle.
Scripts returned to CEMC
The school returns all materials to CEMC, which marks the written solutions centrally.
Results and certificates
Results reach the registering school, along with certificates and any medals awarded.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares students for CIMC.
The mathematics is grade 10 and below. Almost all of the preparation gap is in the three written questions.
Writing up solved problems
Students practise writing full solutions to problems they have already worked out, because solving and explaining are separate skills and only the second one is new. Official CEMC solutions show exactly what full credit looks like.
CEMC’s own resources
Past papers, the courseware CEMC publishes for revising key content, and the problem-set generator that builds practice sets from the Gauss, Pascal, Cayley and Fermat archives. All of it is free and pitched at this level.
Splitting the two hours
Timed papers are run so that the answer-only half is finished briskly. Students who treat all nine questions as equal reliably run out of time on the questions that carry twice the marks.
Entering more than once
The contest can be sat in successive years, and a grade 9 student who enters CIMC has a full year to improve before entering again - or before moving up to CSMC or Euclid.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for CIMC at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for CIMC is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past papers and preparation pack
The same material our own CIMC students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFPast papers, every year the organiser has released
- PDFWorked solutions, where the organiser publishes them
- PDFThe syllabus on one page - every topic, and how heavily it is examined
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Dr Zhang
PhD in theoretical mathematics from the University of Rochester and a postdoctoral fellow at the Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences at Fudan. An AMC-accredited coach, ASDAN-accredited for DMM and ITCCC, and an accredited UKMT BMO2 and PUMaC coach. His students have gone on to read mathematics and physics at Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Caltech and Cambridge.
Dr Zhuang
PhD in mathematics from the University of Denver, working in mathematical logic, after a first degree in applied mathematics at Southeast University. A repeat conference speaker on his research, with three years lecturing and assisting on undergraduate mathematics at Denver.
He
A Cambridge master's after a computer science degree with a mathematics minor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a US high school GPA of 4.13. Six years overseas and teaches entirely in English, across AMC, Math League, AP Computer Science and AP Calculus.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for CIMC, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
CIMC, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Who can sit CIMC?
Students in grades 9 and 10. Most questions are based on the grade 10 curriculum and earlier, so the paper does not assume material a candidate has not yet been taught.
How is CIMC different from CSMC?
They share a date, a length, a format and a fee. CIMC is for grades 9 and 10 and is built on the grade 10 curriculum and earlier; CSMC is for grades 10 and 11 and CEGEP students, and its syllabus reaches into grade 12 mathematics and beyond.
How is the paper marked?
Six answer-only questions at 5 marks each and three full-solution questions at 10 marks each, out of 60. Written solutions are marked on completeness, clarity and process - a correct answer without complete working will not get full marks.
Can I get marks for a wrong answer?
On the three written questions, yes. Credit is given for correct reasoning even where the final answer is wrong. The six answer-only questions do not work that way.
How do I register?
Through a school. CIMC is administered at partner schools as a written paper, and students cannot register individually. CEMC publishes a fee of $14 per entrant.
Is the contest online or on paper?
It is normally sat in person as a written paper at the school. Any change is announced by the organiser, so confirm the current arrangement before the date.
Can I use a calculator?
Yes for numerical work, but not one with internet access, the ability to communicate with other devices, stored formulas or notes, a computer algebra system, or dynamic geometry software.
What can a strong result lead to?
The top 25% receive a Certificate of Distinction, and the five highest official Canadian entrants receive a medal and $300. Waterloo may also select students from among award winners for direct admission with a full scholarship.
Related
The rest of the Waterloo family.
Where CIMC sits among CEMC’s contests.
CIMC enquiries
Half the marks are for writing. Start there.
Students moving up from multiple-choice contests can almost always solve the questions and almost never write them up for full credit. Tell us the year group, and an advisor will confirm the school registration route and the preparation.