Competitive Contest Team
Interested in joining our Contest Team?
Competitive Contest Team
The Competitive Contest Team is an exclusive program free of charge for the top students in Grades 3-12 who would like to compete nationally and internationally representing Spirit of Math Schools. This is a series of intensive high-level coaching sessions for students who are looking for an extreme challenge. Classes will start in September and run until May.
Students must submit an application and participate in an entrance competition. Only the top 6 - 12 students per level will be selected for the Competitive Contest Team. Submitting an application does not guarantee acceptance. For any additional questions, please contact contests@spiritofmath.com.
Apply Here!The Application Process
The deadline to submit the following documents is June 9, 2024.
- For grades 3 - 4, two honour roll math contest certificates.*
- For grades 5 - 12, three honour roll math contest certificates.*
- A recommendation letter from your math teacher at day school or SoM.
- A written paragraph on a mathematics topic which you would like to learn about in no less than 200 words. Explain why you choose the topic and what aspects interest you the most.
- For grades 9 - 12, a recent day school report card with a minimum of 92% or A+ in mathematics.
* Honour roll scores are 80% or above. Please include screenshots of the contest scores and highlight the applicant's name. For students registered in SoM grades 1-6, BrightSpace screenshots of the CNML, SOMC, or Mathematica results are accepted.
Apply Here!All applicants will be invited to compete for the top 6-12 positions within their level. The entrance competition focuses on reasoning and problem solving and has a total of ten questions.
| Grades 3 to 8 | Grades 9 to 12 | |
| Competition Date | Week of June 17th | Week of June 17th |
| Format | Virtual | In person at Headquarter Campus |
| Multiple-Choice Question (1 mark each) | Four questions | Four questions |
| Short Answer Question (2 marks each) | Five questions | Four questions |
| Full solution question (5 marks each) | One question | Two questions |
| Total number of marks | 19 points | 22 points |
We suggest the following material to practice for the entrance competition:
| Grades 3 and 4 | Grades 5 and 6 | Grades 7 and 8 | Grades 9 and 10 | Grades 11 and 12 |
Various grade-specific contest papers, such as Mathematica, Math Kangaroo.
Overview
To stay in the program, students need to be active participants and contribute to the learning of other members which will give them the full benefit from the coaching experience. As members of the club, students are expected to:
- Attend Competitive Contest Team sessions.
- For grades 3 - 10, a maximum absence of two sessions is accepted.
- For grades 11 - 12, a maximum absence of three sessions is accepted.
- Compete in at least three prestigious math competitions during the school year
- Participate in team competitions, as organized by the coach.
- Complete one group discovery project and presentation.
- Organize and attend additional discover topic meetings.
- Participate in your coaching sessions and be engaged in out of classroom activities, such as commenting on online posts and discussions between sessions.
Application Fee
$30
Program Fee
FREE
Travel to Competitions
Students participating in the Competitive Contest Team Grades 10 to 12 must be able to travel to national and international math competitions. To ensure the safety and guidance of our students, they need to be accompanied by one parent/guardian to all out of town events. Furthermore, expenses for food, accommodation, and travel will not be covered by Spirit of Math. We are actively exploring options for financial aid to assist with the expenses, but please note that there is no certainty in securing such aid.
| Grades 3 to 8 | Grades 9 to 10 | Grades 11 to 12 | |
| Location | Virtual | In-person at Headquarter Campus** | In-person at Headquarter Campus** |
| Day/ Time | Weekends at 10:00 am or 12:15pm ET*** | Wednesdays 5pm *** | Wednesdays at 7:15pm*** |
| Duration | 2 hours | 2 hours | 2 hours |
| Frequency |
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|
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- Grades 3 to 4: 12 Students
- Grades 5 to 6: 12 Students
- Grades 7 to 8: 12 Students
- Grades 9 to 10: 12 Students
- Grades 11 to 12: 6-8 Students
- Grades 3-8: Noetic, MOEMS, Mustang Math Tournament, Purple Comet, Canadian Innovation Math Contest
- Grades 9-12: Purple Comet, Harvard MIT Math Tournament in Boston, John Hopkins Math Tournament in Baltimore
Guest Speaker
Zsuzsanna Dansco from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney will be our Guest Speaker for 2024-25.
Interested in hearing from our Guest Speaker from last year?
Discovery Topics
Besides the regular coaching sessions students will be completing one independent 4-week research project - the Discovery Topic. The purpose of the Discovery Topic is for students to explore advanced math concepts through collaborative research. Students will develop a great understanding of this math topic and will be able to present their learning.
Discovery Topic Presentations
2023 Spirit of Math Discovery Topic Presentations: Fractals - Infinitely Complex Shapes
2023 Spirit of Math Discovery Topic Presentations: Proofs by Contradiction and Contrapositive
Our Coaches
Daniel Zhu is a graduate from the University of Waterloo Math Faculty, majoring Financial Analysis and Risk Management, with minors in Statistics, and Management Studies. Daniel is an Alternative Investment Specialist at a Wealth Management Bank, and has garnered some recognition by completing the CFA Designation. Daniel also has experience coaching junior high students in the past. He is a math enthusiast and has competed in many math contests successfully. Daniel is also an avid racket sports & soccer player.
Besides working in capital markets, Matthew loves to share his enthusiasm for mathematics. Currently, he has 12 years of experience training students for competitions and tutoring school curriculum. He strives to foster a fun and engaging learning environment and pushes his students to try and win national and global competitions. Being the Intermediate Competitive Contest Club coach, he enjoys working with his students and observing their faces of satisfaction upon discovering the solution to the most challenging questions!
Bonnie McLoughlin was born and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a B.Ed. from the University of Winnipeg, and a Master of Mathematics for Teachers from the University of Waterloo. Bonnie has worked for Spirit of Math as a teacher of grades 5 through 11 since 2007, as a curriculum specialist, and as a Competitive Contest Coach since 2021. She has also had experience writing and editing math contests. Bonnie loves problem solving and creating collaborative projects to explore new ideas with her students. For fun, she enjoys reading and video games, and is working on a daily solving streak of New York Time Crossword Puzzles. Her cat Kali sometimes makes guest appearances in her online classes.
Seema Gupta is a Junior Competitive Contest Coach. She earned her MSc in mathematics from C.C.S University in India. She has been working as a teacher for Grades 7 and 8 at Spirit of Math Schools in Vancouver, Canada, for more than seven years. She organized math competitions in the United States and guided students on how to handle challenging math questions using strong strategies & critical thinking. She encourages students to take an active and engaging role in their learning by facilitating opportunities for inquiry, collaboration, and reflection. She actively participates as a volunteer at BC schools and helps organize math competitions. Besides teaching, she loves to go camping and spending time with her family.
Student Testimonials
Junior Students
I liked that instructors gave many math contests to us to solve and teach us how to solve the hardest questions. I also like the Discovery Topic Presentation that we have to do.
I liked the group contests like Noetic, and I also liked when we got into groups, and we solved questions. Basically, I like working in a group.
Senior Students
I liked how clear the coach was when explaining all the problems and providing interesting questions to work on.
I really loved the discovery topics this year because I have never really learnt about different mathematical proofs.
Parent Testimonials
Challenging!
The team provides opportunities for students to participate in national and international math contests which otherwise are more challenging to register and get proctoring for. Weekly and monthly problem sets and quizzes encourage to explore and learn new math topics. The most important part are the inspirational peers, fun to study with and to stay motivated.
Appreciation!
I highly appreciate the Competitive Contest Team. My daughter, Lauren, has been a part of the team since it started. She is a talented kid and loves math. She enjoys the team very much and gets a chance to work with some really talented and hard-working kids. Through the club, Lauren got to explore some interesting math topics and finished some group projects with other kids. Also, she got to compete in some challenging math contests. I will strongly recommend it to other parents and encourage kids to apply for the Competitive Contest Team.
