By: Carlo Brian Angelo S. Nerecena

Trainees of the MTG Mathematics Challenge for Filipino Kids (MTG-MCFK) spent part of their January 29 Saturday training session taking the Canadian Mathematics Competition (CMC), yet another international competition participated in by the MTG through correspondence. This is in fact the fifth such contest this year, following the heels of the Australian Mathematics Competition, the American Mathematics Competition, the US Mathematics Olympiad for Elementary and Mathematics Schools, and the South African Math Contest, which were all taken some time earlier in this school year.

The CMC was created by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC), which operates within the University of Waterloo’s Faculty in Mathematics. It started in 1997 and consists of more than ten different contests that follow different formats and are geared toward different grade levels. Last year's competition drew more the participation of more than 70,000 students.

The CMC has been one of the international competitions that the MTG has been participating annually. This year the MTG trainees took part in three of its contests, namely the Pascal Contest (for Grade 6 and below), the Cayley Contest (For Grade 7 and 1st year), and the Fermat Contest (for 2nd year). These three contests follow the same format; all of them consist of 25 multiple-choice questions.

For more information regarding the CMC, click here.

Aside from giving the MTG trainees an opportunity to shine and make their school and country proud, these competitions also allow the MTG trainers to assess and gauge the potential of the students. Scores earned from competitions such as the CMC are recorded and included in the computations used as basis in determining the MTG kids who will qualify in the succeeding stages of the MTG-MCFK.