<p>exact same situation as adidasty</p>
<p>i think you're kind of missing my point here. strategically, what is the purpose of answering exactly 12 questions on the AMC? there is no possible incentive whatsoever for answering 12 questions instead of 11. if you have 12 questions that you're pretty sure about, why not go back and just erase one that you just don't like?</p>
<p>i know this criticism is after the fact and can't really help us now, and i'm definitely not criticising adidasty...i'm just asking if my theory has any merit. and it could certainly be something to keep in mind for next year. </p>
<p>(well, i guess the only incentive is in the unlikely event that top 5% qualify, it might help...but extremely, extremely unlikely)</p>
<p>Jimmy you are totally right. It is just natural though to write in all the answers you know. And thats okay if you are equally sure for all of them, when it comes to answering 12, or if there are at least 2 you are (relatively) unsure about, but equally unsure.</p>
<p>Firebird y'know you dont have to take everything so literally. (lol, I was so close to retorting "quit being so anal about it." Sorry for that bad pun.)</p>
<p>Poor tetrahedr0n gave up....</p>
<p>I passed AMC 12A (11 right, 14 blank=101) so on this one I took more chances (not much though). I can't believe all the stupid mistakes I made (i.e. didn't read the question) Like last time I solved about 4-5 after the test, in such a simple "I can't believe I didn't think of that earlier" manner. I blame my poor performance on being sick (I sat through school solely to take the AMC after school). I thought I had answered 13, but it looks as if I answered only 12 (probably the worst number to answer other than 10 or below) And I'm pretty sure I missed at least 1-2.</p>
<p>Darn, I really had wanted to break 110.</p>
<p>I think this is vague enough to have little effect on anyone's test.</p>
<p>Now it's time to prepare for Science Bowl and AIME! (And Chem Olympiad since I know no chemistry)</p>
<p>By the way, that money problem was easy, but I didn't answer it on the test.</p>
<p>answered 15, missed 2. got 13 right. 103.</p>
<p>BOO-YAH!</p>
<p>This year I played it VERY safe, since I still can't forget missing the AIME last year by 4 points on the 10B. I actually did 16 problems, but then only had the nerves to put down correct answers to 13 of them. Ended up getting the 3 that I didn't put down right (what kind of gayness is that?!), or I'd had 112.5....darn! But still made it, and that's good enough for me (since I'm a soph =P). Our school's highest score is currently 139.5. (which is not that bad, considering we only have 225 people).</p>
<p>haha, i was just kidding...</p>
<p>But oasis, in China and Taiwan, people are taught a lot more math (for those who never lived in Asia, trust me, u start the mutliplication table in grade 1 or in kindergarden, and then ur parents sign u up for all those courses...urgh) so they're better at it than most. SO it is not surprsing at all that you had a 139.5 scorer at ur school.
For ex, China won like the majority of past IMOs.
And for the perfect scorers on the AMCs, like 1/3 to 1/2 are from Taiwan, a island with 25 million people. Compared with the 300 million plus in the US, Canada etc.</p>
<p>Now guys, don't blame me for telling the truth, I'm just spiting out the facts.</p>
<p>Don't u guys think the AMC12A was awfully easy this year?</p>
<p>I was too conservative and played safe as well, didn't answer as many as I should have. I did get a 112.5 though, which is enough to get a cheap plastic pin of some sort.</p>
<p>guys... what would a 99.5 be??? awful close... maybe top 5%?</p>
<ul>
<li>Now guys, don't blame me for telling the truth, I'm just spiting out the facts.</li>
</ul>
<p>I blame you for not telling the truth. In 2004, Taiwan had 1 perfect scorer out of 24. Your claim refers only to the very large about third of perfect scorers from Taiwan in 2003, but they had only a handful in 2002-2000.</p>
<p>As for China's IMO success - it has nothing to do with how much math the average student in China knows or does. It has to do with the enormously intensive training that their top students do - much more so than in the US. Similar situations can be found in Eastern Europe, which have similar success at the IMO. As for oasis's school - I go to a fairly average public school and we have higher scorers than that. There were 225 scores of 139.5 or more in 2003, a year similar in difficulty to this year.</p>
<p>"There were 225 scores of 139.5 or more in 2003, a year similar in difficulty to this year."</p>
<p>Holy crap...what are they feeding you kids?? That's insane</p>
<p>
[quote]
"There were 225 scores of 139.5 or more in 2003, a year similar in difficulty to this year."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>not all at one school. That's total.</p>
<p>that raises a few eyebrows</p>
<p>"As for China's IMO success - it has nothing to do with how much math the average student in China knows or does. It has to do with the enormously intensive training that their top students do - much more so than in the US. Similar situations can be found in Eastern Europe, which have similar success at the IMO."</p>
<p>I thought that was the point I was trying to make; that better prep and more prep make u more proficient.</p>
<p>"I go to a fairly average public school and we have higher scorers than that. "
And there are many good public/private schools without higher scores than 140. So your school is merely the exception I guess.</p>
<p>However, don't u think it is strange that one year Taiwan has a whopping number of extremely high scorers and the other years very few?</p>
<p>We don't have enough statistical data to infer anything, but it seems so unlikely that Taiwan would get such a score boost from one year's worth of students. It doesn't make sense. How can u explain such fluctuations if we know that the same schools and same approx number of HS students took them.</p>
<ul>
<li>I thought that was the point I was trying to make; that better prep and more prep make u more proficient.</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm not going to disagree with that :) because its totally right. I was just trying to say that not all students in China (and/or) Taiwan are capable of scoring so well on a difficult exam - however, the top students there are really good due to their great prep.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't know what to make of the huge change in Taiwanese perfect scorers from 2004 to 2005. We will probably get a better idea this year. My guesses - perhaps certain schools took the exam that year but didn't in previous or later years? Or maybe the exam had questions that were better suited to the Taiwan curriculum? I don't know.</p>
<p>I still haven't gotten my score yet... where are you guys getting your numbers from? I took the 12B</p>
<p>What's the difference between 12a and 12b?</p>
<p>we don't have our scores officially either, but some of us were allowed to keep our test booklets after the test, and we've compared answers with friends or asked our math teachers.</p>
<p>12a was the one given a few weeks ago, 12b was the one given a few days ago. they're supposed to be equal in difficulty, just different forms. that's all i know.</p>
<p>Sorry for your confusion, I go to an INTERNATIONAL school which comprises of foreigners, so this is non-comparable to chinese local schools here. </p>
<p>Tetrahedr0n, why the number of perfect scorers greatly diminished is because AMC is a highly optional contest here. Students are not required to participate, and the schools that host the contest is only mediocre-level compared to the other high schools. For example, most of our best high schools and science/math schools don't participate in the AMC just because they find no reason to do so. They rather spend more time on Taiwanese hosted math exams to get into the Taiwanese Olympiad rather than doing AMC. My former math tutor in Kaohsiung said her school didn't host AMC this year (her school is a fairly competitive high school, ranked 3rd in the region) simply because her students are more concerned about their own final exams at school than the AMC (since AMC has no benefit here for college and stuff). Those gifted math students would rather take the Taiwanese math exam to get into the Taiwanese Olympiad, for that is much more prestigious in the Taiwanese parents' view than even a full mark on the AMC. To my knowledge, none of the top 3 schools in the major competitive school regions (Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung), had chosen to take the AMC. Therefore, AMC is not an accurate depiction of the mathematical levels of Taiwanese students.</p>
<p>Just curious, tetrahedr0n, do you remember me from mathcamp? =P</p>
<p>I do, but I wasnt sure if it was you or not :) but the fact your sn is the same as on AoPS and you describe Taiwan as your location gave it away.</p>
<p>Hows life for ya Chris? </p>
<p>Yeah, I can understand the discrepancy between 2003 and 2004 scores. Just gotta wonder why the more competitive schools decided to take the exam in 2003 but not before or after.</p>