Competitions · Chemistry · CCO
CCO, the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad.
You cannot register for this one. Entry is by invitation to students who won an award at the Canadian Chemistry Contest in April - and the olympiad itself is five months later, in September.
At a glance
What the olympiad is, and how you reach it.
CCO is run by the Chemical Institute of Canada, the umbrella body for the country’s chemistry societies. ASDAN China has hosted both CCC and CCO in the China region since 2018.
- Organiser
- The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC)
- How to enter
- By invitation only, to students who won an award at the Canadian Chemistry Contest
- When
- Mid-September, with registration closing about ten days earlier
- Duration
- 2 hours
- Format
- Individual, sat in person
- What it is for
- Extending school chemistry into genuine academic work, and preparing students for university-level study and research
- The gap
- CCC is sat in April and CCO in September - five months between qualifying and competing
- The field
- Strong secondary students from around the world, marked together and awarded together
- What it leads to
- Selection toward Canada’s team for the International Chemistry Olympiad
The five-month gap
Qualifying in April, competing in September.
The interval between the two rounds is the most practically important thing about this competition, and it is usually treated as dead time.
A summer between the rounds
CCC results arrive in the spring and CCO is not until September. That is a full summer in which a qualified student can prepare, and most of the difference between candidates is made in it.
The step up is real
CCC is an hour of multiple choice. CCO is two hours at olympiad level. Arriving in September having done nothing since April wastes the qualification.
Which makes summer the season
For a student who takes an award in April, the summer is the preparation window rather than a break. Planning it in May rather than August is what separates results.
And it is a small field
Because entry is limited to CCC award winners, the September field is far stronger than the April one. The competition is against qualified students only.
The route
Where CCO sits in the Canadian ladder.
CCO is the national final of a two-stage Canadian route, and it feeds the international olympiad beyond that.
CCC comes first
The Canadian Chemistry Contest is open to any high-school student with no qualifying requirement - twenty-five multiple-choice questions in an hour, sat in April.
An award there is the ticket
Students who win an award at CCC are invited to CCO. There is no other route in, and no direct registration.
CCO selects toward IChO
The olympiad forms part of the selection for Canada’s team at the International Chemistry Olympiad, which is where the ladder ends.
And it reads in applications
For students applying to chemistry, chemical engineering or medicine, an olympiad result carries weight that a contest result alone does not.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares students for CCO.
Preparation begins the moment CCC results arrive, because the summer is the whole opportunity.
Using the summer deliberately
Five months is enough to move a student from contest level to olympiad level, and not enough to do it in the last fortnight. Planning starts in the spring.
Depth where CCC only sampled
CCC tests eight areas at multiple-choice depth. CCO asks for genuine working across two hours, so the same topics need revisiting at a different level.
Writing chemistry, not selecting it
Moving from multiple choice to an extended paper is a change of mode. Students practise setting out reasoning rather than recognising an answer.
Hanlin’s record here
Hanlin students have taken global gold and national super gold at CCO, including placings inside the national top six and top eight, alongside silver, bronze and merit awards across recent years.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for CCO 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 tiers
Which course, and on what evidence.
Every tier for CCO is entered from a placement paper rather than from a year group. These are the actual standards.
| Course | Hours | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Full course | Full course | An award at CCC first |
Ask for the placement paper before choosing a tier. It takes an hour and it settles the question.
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 CCO 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 Li
A Fudan postdoctoral researcher with a PhD in organic chemistry from HKUST, a master's in medicinal chemistry and nano-engineering from East China University of Science and Technology jointly with Myongji University, and a first degree in pharmaceutics. College Board-accredited.
Qiu
PhD in organic chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, after materials physics at East China University of Science and Technology. College Board-accredited, with published papers on organic small-molecule catalysis in internationally recognised journals.
Shi
Master's in water science and engineering from TU Dresden - one of Germany's TU9 institutes - after environmental engineering at Ocean University of China. A researcher in environmental chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, a DAAD scholarship holder, and College Board-accredited.
Student results
What Hanlin students got.
Taken from Hanlin's published record of student honours and rewritten in English. Figures are as the organisers reported them.
CCO
- 20242 global Bronze, 8 merit awards and one national Gold
- 2023One national Super Gold, plus 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze
Earlier years
- 20222 global Silver and 7 Bronze
- 2021One Gold and 8 Bronze
The full record, across every subject and year, is on the student honours page.
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 CCO, 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
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Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
CCO, briefly answered.
What students and families ask about qualifying and competing.
Can I register for CCO directly?
No. Entry is by invitation to students who won an award at the Canadian Chemistry Contest. The route in runs through CCC and nowhere else.
When are the two rounds?
CCC is sat in late April and CCO in mid-September, with roughly five months between them.
How long is the CCO paper?
Two hours, sat individually and in person.
How much harder is it than CCC?
Considerably. CCC is an hour of multiple-choice questions; CCO is a two-hour olympiad paper sat by a field consisting entirely of CCC award winners.
What should I do between April and September?
Treat the summer as the preparation window. That interval is where most of the difference between qualified candidates is made, and it is commonly wasted.
What does CCO lead to?
It forms part of the selection toward Canada’s team for the International Chemistry Olympiad.
Who runs it?
The Chemical Institute of Canada, the umbrella body for Canada’s chemistry societies. ASDAN China has hosted the China region since 2018.
Is it worth entering if I cannot reach the Canadian team?
The award itself carries weight in applications for chemistry, chemical engineering and medicine, and the field is strong enough that placing in it means something regardless of national team selection.
Related
The route in, and other chemistry contests.
CCC is the only way to reach CCO; the others sit alongside it.
CCO enquiries
The summer between the rounds is the whole opportunity.
Qualifying happens in April and the olympiad is in September. Tell us whether the student has sat CCC and how they did, and an advisor will map the summer that actually decides the September result.