Important Announcement for WMO CANADA 2021 starting on May 21st, 2021
Dear WMO Canada Participants,
Welcome to WMO Canada 2021. The Provincial Semi-Finals will take place on Friday, May 21st, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT, which is just a few days away!
Please read this announcement carefully to ensure you have all the information necessary to successfully participate in the competition.
Summary of what you will find in this announcement:
1. Date and hours of the competition
2. Format of competition
3. Duration of each competition
4. Devices and Applications
5. Scoring system
6. Results and Certifications
7. Customer support
8. Practice resources
Date and hours of the contest:
WMO Canada 2021 has three competition papers. This year, students will write all three papers at the following dates and times:
Provincial Semi-Finals: Friday, May 21st, 12:00 p.m. EDT.
Provincial Finals: Friday, May 28th, 12:00 p.m. EDT.
Canadian National Finals: Friday, June 4th, 12:00 p.m. EDT.
Format of WMO Canada 2021:
This competition is online, no paper copy of the competition will be distributed.
The learning management system, Brightspace, will be used to administer the competition online.
Every effort has been made to ensure the online competition process is as smooth, fair, and secure as possible. However, we do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted access to the online competition and we take no responsibility for technical issues beyond our control.
· If you are not a Spirit of Math student, you should have already received an email from our IT helpdesk when you first registered for WMO with information to set up your account. The account needs to be activated within 24 hours of receiving the email. Use the temporary credentials to login to https://portal.office.com. You will be prompted to change this temporary password to a permanent one (please record this new password for future use). You will then need to provide at least 1 authentication method (phone, email, or security questions). You are now able to use your username (studentID@student.spiritofmath.com) and new password to login to Microsoft Teams and Brightspace. If your account link has expired or if you have not received the email, or require any other assistance, please submit a support ticket, call us on +1 (437)-226-7419 or email us here as soon as possible.
The video conferencing tool, Microsoft Teams, will be used to proctor the competition live. No competition may be submitted outside of the scheduled live proctoring sessions for any reason.
· Log into Microsoft Teams. Use the Microsoft Teams application or web-based platform (https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-teams/log-in), to sign into Microsoft Teams using your Spirit of Math account (studentID@student.spiritofmath.com) at least 10 minutes before the competition is scheduled to begin. Click on the meeting invitation in Microsoft Teams Calendar to join the live proctoring session.
All participants will be added to either the WMO Level 1 (grades 3 & 4) or Level 2 (grades 4 & 5) course on Brightspace and on corresponding Microsoft Teams Classroom by May 18th, 2021.
· Ensure you are enrolled in the correct level before the day of the competition.
· If by error, you are registered in an incorrect contest grade or require any assistance, please email: info@wmocanada.com or call +1 (437) 266-7419 or use the following link to create an IT Helpdesk Ticket: Create IT Support Ticket · Customer Self-Service (microsoftcrmportals.com)
Duration and format of each competition:
Each of the Provincial Semi-Finals and Provincial Finals are multiple-choice with four choices for each question. The Canadian National Finals contain both multiple-choice and final answer questions.
Provincial Semi-Finals:
· 15 questions at 1 point each and 5 questions at 2 points each in 60 minutes.
Provincial Finals:
· 15 questions at 1 point each and 5 questions at 2 points each in 60 minutes.
Canadian National Finals:
· 10 multiple-choice questions at 2 points each and
· 10 final answer questions at 3 points each in 90 minutes.
Contest rules:
As online proctoring involves a new set of challenges, specific rules have been put in place to maintain the integrity of the virtual competition and provide a fair place for all students to compete equally. If a proctor notices any violations of the competition rules, they must immediately report it and disqualify any participant who infringes the rules. Senior proctors will be attending each virtual session to reinforce the rules. It is important that each contestant reads these rules carefully and understands the implications.
· All participants must be proctored in a virtual meeting during the competition.
· All participants are to join the live proctoring session 10 minutes before the competition is scheduled to begin to avoid technical difficulties that delay the start of the competition.
· All participants must find a quiet place where they can complete this competition without interruptions. This is essential, as students will be required to remain unmuted and background noise will not only interfere with the student’s concentration but will also lead to distractions for other participants. No parents, guardians, or siblings are allowed to be in the same room as the participant during the competition. If a participant faces technical difficulties, they may ask their parents or guardians to come and help resolve the technical issue.
· No participant may begin the competition until they are told to do so by a proctor. Each contest round is password protected.
· All participants must have their camera and microphone on during the competition otherwise they are disqualified.
· All proctored contests will be recorded to ensure transparency with proctoring the contests and to provide a fair level of competition.
· Strict silence must be observed at all times during the competition.
· No participant may leave the virtual meeting at any time during the competition. If a participant is disconnected from the virtual meeting, they need to inform the proctor as soon as possible by sending an email to info@wmocanada.com or call +1 (437) 266-7419 or use the following link to create an IT Helpdesk Ticket: Create IT Support Ticket · Customer Self-Service (microsoftcrmportals.com) They have 10 minutes to log back into Microsoft Teams and to continue the competition. No additional time to write the competition will be provided to the participant if they are disconnected. If the participant does not rejoin the virtual meeting within 10 minutes or inform the proctor of any issues, their work will be automatically submitted on their behalf, and they will not be able to continue the competition.
· No calculators or unauthorized electronic devices (including mobile phones) are allowed during the competition.
· All participants will have only one attempt to complete the competition.
· All participants must answer all questions online. No participant will be awarded marks for any answers that were not submitted in the online competition.
· All participants must submit their competition online when time is up. No participant may leave the virtual meeting at the end of the competition until the proctor has confirmed their submission of the online competition has been received.
· Each question in the competition has been verified by experienced trainers. No hints or explanations of the questions will be provided to participants.
Devices and Applications:
All participants must have the following devices and applications to participate in the contest:
· A high-speed internet connection
· A laptop or a desktop computer (no phones and no tablets)
· A web camera and a microphone
· A Microsoft Teams application
Scoring System:
Provincial Semi-Finals and Provincial Finals: The correct answers to problems 1 to 15 will be awarded 1 point each. The correct answers to problems 16 to 20 will be awarded 2 points each. The total number of marks is 25 points. You will not be penalized for any incorrect answers.
Canadian National Finals: The correct answers to problems 1 to 10 will be awarded 2 points each. The correct answers to problems 11 to 20 will be awarded 3 points each. The total number of marks is 50 points. You will not be penalized for any incorrect answers.
· The organizer reserves the right to call for a re-sit in the event of malpractice and to differentiate between those outstanding students.
· Contestants who are disqualified from the competition will not be recognized and will be forfeited of any right to re-sit this year.
· A participant’s overall competition score is the average of their scores on the three competitions.
· A student will receive 0% on any competition that they did not write to ensure fairness when the final average is calculated.
Results and certifications:
The competition will be automatically marked by the online platform, Brightspace.
The results and the full solution for each competition will be available in the online course by the following dates:
§ Provincial Semi-Finals: May 24th, 2021
§ Provincial Finals: May 31st, 2021
§ Canadian National Finals: June 7th, 2021
The overall competition score of each participant will be released on June 14th.
Customer support:
Please email info@wmocanada.com or call +1 (437) 266-7419 or use the following link to create an IT Helpdesk Ticket: Create IT Support Ticket · Customer Self-Service (microsoftcrmportals.com)
Practice resources:
We encourage students to take advantage of our WMO Canada past contest papers for practice, which can be found in our resource section: https://www.wmocanada.com/resources
Every effort has been made to ensure the online contest process is as smooth, fair, and secure as possible. However, we do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted access to the online contest and we take no responsibility for technical issues beyond our control.
Regards,
WMO Canada Team