University of Waterloo CEMC ContestsGauss / Pascal / Cayley / Fermat / Euclid

By grade: Gauss for grades 7-8, Pascal for grade 9, Cayley for grade 10, Fermat for grade 11, and Euclid for grade 12 or the final year of secondary school. The first four are 25 questions in 60 minutes, mixing multiple choice with integer fill-in, with approved calculators allowed. Euclid is a different animal: 10 questions in 2.5 hours, several requiring fully written solutions, and a clear step up in both difficulty and character.

Yes. CEMC contests are open worldwide, and U.S. schools fall under the North and South America schedule, writing on the same or nearby dates as Canadian schools. American schools are equally eligible for awards such as the Certificate of Distinction. One thing to note: the cash prizes attached to the top Euclid scores are for Canadian students, while U.S. participants receive certificates and honour-roll placement.

No — CEMC requires all students to participate through a school. The principal or head of mathematics submits a new school application, approval takes up to three weeks, and the school then receives a nine-digit CEMC School Number that a teacher uses to order through the Contest Supervisor Portal and supervise the writing in a classroom. If your school isn't registered, you can ask another local school or an independent test centre willing to accept your child.

You can write up but not down — CEMC explicitly allows students to write a contest above their grade level and forbids writing below it. One restriction is easy to miss: Pascal, Cayley, and Fermat form a single group, and a student may write only one of the three in a given school year. So a grade 10 student who wants to attempt Fermat is giving up Cayley that year, which is worth weighing first.

For the North and South America region: Pascal, Cayley, and Fermat are written February 23-24, 2027; Euclid on April 6, 2027; and Gauss within a designated window in May 2027. Ordering deadlines differ by contest and fall well before the writing date — for schools outside Canada, February 2, 2027 for Pascal/Cayley/Fermat, March 11, 2027 for Euclid, and April 22, 2027 for Gauss.

AMC 12 is 25 multiple-choice questions in 75 minutes and tests fast recognition and problem solving. Euclid is 10 questions in 2.5 hours, several demanding full written solutions marked step by step, testing mathematical exposition and argument in a way closer to university mathematics. They do not conflict: AMC 12 maps to the U.S. admissions system, while Euclid is weighed directly in Canadian admissions. A grade 12 student considering Canadian universities should sit both.

All fees are in Canadian dollars. Per writer: $5.00 for Gauss (minimum order of ten, dropping to $4.50 above 500 copies), $6.00 for Pascal, Cayley, and Fermat, and $18.00 for Euclid. Each order adds a $5.00 processing fee, and shipping for schools outside Canada, including the U.S., is 15% of the order total with a $10.00 minimum. GST/HST applies only to Canadian orders.

It genuinely helps at Waterloo. Euclid is not a hard requirement for the Faculty of Mathematics, but in the most competitive programs a strong Euclid result often separates two otherwise similar applicants, and it is a meaningful input for entrance scholarships, read alongside transcripts and the AIF. U.S. universities recognize Euclid far less than AMC and AIME, so a student applying on both sides of the border should not treat Euclid as a substitute for the AMC.