My Experiences at Canada Math Camp

A look into one of Canada's most interesting and exclusive math camps.

One of the biggest math competitions in Canada is the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC). It's a 12 question contest with a mixture of both short answer questions and proof questions. Now most people know that if you do well enough in the COMC, you will be invited to write the Canadian Math Olympiad (CMO). But you can also make it to the Canada Math Camp, an invitational math camp for kids in grade 10 or below. I've heard around 24 people make it each year.

While I didn't make the CMO, I did make the camp. I was really delighted to do so, and I just wanted to share my experiences here for anyone else who hopes to get in.

Before making the camp, I felt like most problems were somewhat easy (as I had been accustomed to problems from the AMC and Caribou Math Contest, another contest I had done for a while), but this camp was a humbling experience. The problems were definitely more challenging than before, and I had an opportunity to meet a bunch of like-minded kids. They talked about mathematical topics that I didn't know about (reminder to self to check them out). One such example is Stirling's Approximation, an approximation for factorials. In general, I'd recommend it for kids who are just starting to learn olympiad math.

I was kind of shocked. Contest math already includes many topics that aren't covered in high school, and the concepts covered here really showed me there is so much that high school students are missing out on- if you enjoy your high school math class, you should try competition math as you might learn some interesting things.

So in conclusion, I feel this camp was a positive experience for me as it showed me that I have a long way to go, but also opened up the joys of olympiad math for me.