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<p>Can someone enlighten me on this? I checked to see what AIME qualification meant – it’s not something that has mattered to my kids – and I was surprised to see that about 10,000 people actually TOOK the AIME last year. I couldn’t find an easy source for the number of qualifiers, but from other data it was pretty clear that 10%+ of the qualifiers didn’t take the test. (It also seems like the number of people qualified to take the test has increased a lot in the past few years, roughly doubling since 2006.) So the number of AIME qualifiers last year was something higher than 11,000.</p>
<p>At that level, it is roughly comparable to the number of students who get 800 on the math SAT I (about 12,000 last year). I recognize that lots of students take the ACT instead, but then I imagine that the SAT numbers include lots of students – foreigners, people who don’t take the AMT – who aren’t eligible for AIME qualification, either.</p>
<p>So what’s the story? Does AIME qualification really mean a lot more than getting an 800 on the math SAT I?</p>