Waterloo's grade 7-8 contest — and one of the few that pays you for leaving a question blank.
Students in Grades 7 and 8. Separate Grade 7 and Grade 8 papers. source
Questions come in three parts worth 5, 6 and 8 marks, for 150 in total. A wrong answer costs nothing — but an unanswered question is worth 2 marks, up to a maximum of 10 unanswered. That cap is the part people miss: blanks 1 through 10 earn 2 marks each, and the eleventh onward earn nothing. So a question you genuinely cannot do is worth leaving blank until you have used your ten, and after that a guess is strictly better than a blank. source
Nearly every summary of the Gauss scoring says '2 marks per unanswered question' and stops there. CEMC's own wording continues: 'to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions'. Past ten blanks you earn nothing for leaving a question empty, and since there is no penalty for a wrong answer, a guess from that point on can only help. Getting this wrong costs real marks, which is why we quote CEMC's sentence in full.
Gauss keeps the traditional five-option format throughout. If your child moves up to Pascal, Cayley or Fermat, Part C now takes a whole number from 0 to 99 instead, so the eliminate-and-guess tactic that works here stops working there.
Papers are copyright of the organiser, so we point you to the source rather than hosting copies.
Original CREST Champs problem sets built to match this competition's format, timing and difficulty — our own content, so you can sit one today rather than waiting for the real date.
Up to ten of them, yes — each unanswered question is worth 2 marks. But the credit caps at ten blanks, and a wrong answer carries no penalty at all, so once ten questions are already blank there is nothing to lose by guessing on the rest.
Correct answers are worth 5 marks in Part A, 6 in Part B and 8 in Part C, out of 150 overall. There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Students in Grades 7 and 8, with a separate paper for each grade. Entry is through school, at a fee of $5.00 per participant.