Competitions · Chemistry · JCCO
JCCO, the Junior Canadian Chemistry Olympiad.
Twenty-five questions in ninety minutes, sat bilingually by students from grade 8 to grade 11. The organisers are unusually candid about it: the difficulty is modest and the award rate is high, which makes it a sensible first chemistry competition.
At a glance
What the olympiad is, and who sits it.
JCCO is run by the Chemical Institute of Canada, the umbrella body for the country’s chemistry societies. ASDAN China has hosted the China region since 2019.
- Organiser
- The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC)
- Who can enter
- Students in grades 8 to 11
- Format
- Individual, written, 25 multiple-choice questions
- Duration
- 90 minutes - well over three minutes a question
- Language
- Bilingual. Papers are supplied in Chinese and English
- Difficulty
- Modest by olympiad standards, which the organisers state plainly. The award rate is correspondingly high
- Awarded separately
- Junior and senior secondary students are judged in separate award tracks in the China region
- When
- Mid-December, with registration closing about ten days earlier
- What it prepares for
- The Canadian Chemistry Contest and the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad that follows it
- Where it can lead
- Hanlin students have advanced from JCCO to the Canadian national training camp
Who it suits
The competition to enter before the difficult ones.
JCCO’s value is its position rather than its prestige. It is where a student finds out whether competition chemistry suits them.
Recommended for students new to senior school
The organisers single out students just beginning senior secondary as the natural entrants. The paper is designed to be reachable rather than to filter.
Three and a half minutes a question
Twenty-five multiple-choice questions across ninety minutes is generous. There is time to think, which is not true of most contests at this level.
And the language barrier is removed
Bilingual papers mean the chemistry is what is being tested. For a student entering an international competition for the first time, that matters.
It points somewhere
JCCO prepares for the Canadian Chemistry Contest and the olympiad beyond it, so a first entry here is the start of a route rather than an isolated result.
Syllabus
Eight areas, all foundational.
The scope is deliberately basic. Everything on it appears in a standard chemistry course, which is what keeps the paper accessible.
Calculation fundamentals
Balancing reaction equations, calculating molar mass, and concentrations. This is the arithmetic backbone of the paper and the most reliably scored part of it.
Solutions and gases
pH and the ideal gas law. Both are standard school content tested at a level a well-taught student will recognise.
Kinetics and thermodynamics
Basic kinetics and basic thermodynamics. Introduced rather than examined in depth, but they are where a weaker foundation shows.
Basic organic chemistry
Foundational organic content only. Unlike the senior olympiads, organic chemistry is one area among eight rather than the dominant one.
Awards
Two award systems, running in parallel.
Global awards are decided against fixed thresholds set by the committee. China awards are percentile bands, with junior and senior students ranked separately.
| Award | Global | China region |
|---|---|---|
| Top Gold | — | Top 5% |
| Gold | Above the committee threshold | Top 15% |
| Silver | Above the committee threshold | Top 30% |
| Bronze | Above the committee threshold | Top 45% |
| Merit | For grade 10 and below clearing the threshold | Regional merit for the top 25% in each region, excluding other award winners |
Junior and senior secondary students are awarded in separate tracks in the China region, so a grade 8 student is not ranked against a grade 11 one.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares students for JCCO.
A foundational syllabus and a generous clock make this a paper where reliability beats brilliance.
Securing the calculations
Balancing, molar mass and concentration questions are the most predictable marks on the paper. Getting them right consistently is worth more than reaching the hardest question.
Covering all eight areas
With 25 questions across eight topics, none can be skipped. Preparation audits the whole list rather than deepening a strength.
Using the time
Ninety minutes for 25 questions leaves room to check. Students practise using that margin rather than finishing early, since accuracy is what the paper rewards.
Planning what comes after
JCCO is a first step. For a student who does well, the Canadian Chemistry Contest in April is the natural next entry, and the planning is easier made now than later.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for JCCO 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 JCCO 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 JCCO 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.
JCCO
- 20244 global merit awards, plus 2 national Gold and 3 Silver
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 JCCO, 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
JCCO, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Who can enter JCCO?
Students in grades 8 to 11. Junior and senior secondary students are awarded in separate tracks in the China region, so a younger student is not ranked against an older one.
How hard is it?
Modest by olympiad standards - the organisers say so directly, and the award rate is correspondingly high. It is designed as an accessible entry point rather than a filter.
What is the paper?
Twenty-five multiple-choice questions in ninety minutes, sat individually on a bilingual Chinese-English paper.
What is examined?
Balancing reactions, molar mass calculations, concentrations, pH, the ideal gas law, basic kinetics, basic thermodynamics and basic organic chemistry.
Do I need good English?
No. Papers are supplied in both Chinese and English, so only the chemistry is being tested.
What are the award bands?
In the China region, Top Gold for the top 5%, Gold for 15%, Silver for 30% and Bronze for 45%, plus a regional merit for the top 25% in each region. Global awards are decided against fixed thresholds set by the committee.
What does it lead to?
It prepares for the Canadian Chemistry Contest and the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad beyond it. Students have progressed from here as far as the Canadian national training camp.
Should this be a first chemistry competition?
That is exactly what it is for. The organisers recommend it particularly to students just starting senior secondary.
Related
Where the Canadian route goes.
The contests JCCO prepares for, and its counterpart in the spring.
JCCO enquiries
The one to enter before the hard ones.
JCCO is bilingual, generously timed and openly described as accessible, which makes it a sensible first international chemistry paper. Tell us the student’s year group and an advisor will map the December entry and what follows.