<p>How do you guys prepare for the AMC tests? Is this the effort of years, or is this a "natural brilliance" test where you just walk in after a few hours of review?</p>
<p>Natural brilliance. No review.</p>
<p>A few hours of review for a test tomorrow isn't really going to make a difference. Natural brilliance is a good thing to have, but kids can and do prepare specifically for the type of math they are likely to encounter on contests like AMC, which is distinctly different from the math they see in their regular classes. The kids shooting for the upper echelons have all either prepared over a long period of time or expect a high score based on past performance. They may be part of a math team that meets on a regular basis throughout the year to work on problem solving, or they may have worked on their own with old exams or with books. The best books for the pre-USAMO levels of various competitions, including AMC, are available at <a href="http://www.artofproblemsolving.com%5B/url%5D">www.artofproblemsolving.com</a>.</p>
<p>AIME: <a href="http://www.kalva.demon.co.uk/%5B/url%5D">http://www.kalva.demon.co.uk/</a>
AMC: <a href="http://www.math.ksu.edu/main/events/hscomp/samples/amc12/sample.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.ksu.edu/main/events/hscomp/samples/amc12/sample.htm</a></p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>Thanks to all! I have a ninth-grader who will take the test tomorrow for the first time. She's done some previous stuff (MathCounts, etc), and is is Calculus now, but she hasn't really prepared for AMC, except to look at the type of problems that are offerred. Fortunately, if I understand this contest correctly, she can set up her own program of preparation and try again next year, if she doesn't hit a home-run this year. Does that sound right to you?</p>
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if I understand this contest correctly, she can set up her own program of preparation and try again next year, if she doesn't hit a home-run this year. Does that sound right to you?
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<p>Sounds right to me! And if she does "hit a home run" this year, she'll want to concentrate her preparation for next year on AIME problems rather than AMC problems.</p>
<p>Texas137 ~ What in your view is the best preparation method (books, online resources, etc) for an organized 9-10th grader to use to prep for AIME?</p>
<p>She likes science as well as math. I have already talked to her about your previous advice on the SW contest for AP courses, and she is working toward that goal (Calc BC and Chemistry this year). She does not, as yet, have a favorite science subject. Do you have any thoghts on other contests or Olympiads and the deadlines that might be coming up in her case?</p>
<p>I know of a couple of kids who systematically worked through all of the AIME's. They made a schedule at the beginning of the school year that would get them through all of them by the exam, and then stuck with it (it was approx 1 AIME every 2 weeks). They both scored very high and qualified for USAMO, then MOSP. You have to be strong enough to be able to figure out how to do the problem by looking at the solution in order for this system to work, however. A student who needed a bit more help might do better taking one of the online courses at artofproblemsolving.com. They will probably have a crash course on AIME problems starting up in the next week or so. Does your daughter have people at school she can work with? The math team I coach will have several AIME qualifiers, so we will be working on that exclusively for the 4 meetings we have after the AMC.</p>
<p>You just missed the deadline for the Physics Olympiad. It's still possible to get on board for the computing olympiad this year, but someone would have to already be a superb programmer to do anything with it this year. She might still be able to take the prelim exam for the chemistry olympiad, but the deadline is around now so you would need to check on it pretty quickly. You would probably be better off thinking in terms of next year.</p>
<p>She should check out some of the summer math and science programs specifically for girls. One of my students did the one at U. Nebraska-Lincoln and had a great experience. I've also heard good things about WTP (Women in Technology) at MIT. </p>
<p>Do you have my links to lists of contests and summer programs? If not, here they are again:
<a href="http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html</a>
<a href="http://www.academiccompetition.org/contests.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.academiccompetition.org/contests.html</a></p>
<p>I think my wife will coach our D for the AMC and then for AIME. I'm looking into the artofproblemsovling.com site (doing the legwork) for them now. We homeschool, so there's no coach from the high school, but the high school is generous in allowing us to take the proctored exams there.</p>
<p>I think we'll look into the Olympiads for next year. D is hoping to make it into the Carnegie Mellon and MIT summer programs this year and next, respectively. We need to jump onto those deadlines too.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help and advice. How many points does a ninth-grader need to score on the AMC test? Is it 100 out of 150?</p>
<p>This may sound like a stupid question but where does one take the AMC exam?</p>
<p>"How many points does a ninth-grader need to score on the AMC test? Is it 100 out of 150?"</p>
<p>If you're taking the AMC10, you need 120 to move on to the AIME (or be in the top 1%, whatever that is). If you're taking the AMC12, you need a 100 (or top 5%).</p>
<p>And to duality- you usually take it at your school, or a nearby one if it offers it. You'd have to contact them in advance to set that up though (or so I've heard).</p>
<p>Getting to AIME isn't particularily difficult if you can answer 11 questions or so on the AMC12 right, and leave everything else blank i believe. However, you probably won't make USAMO that way. I don't know. I just want to get to AIME this year.</p>
<p>meso is right about the cut-offs. If she qualifies for AIME as a 9th or 10th grader, at that poibt her AMC 10 or 12 score won't matter any more. In order to qualify for USAMO, the relevant number in the "aime floor", which is the bottom aime score made by anyone who is in the top 160 people based on AMC10/12 score plus 10x the aime score.</p>
<p>btw - does your daughter know anything about Melanie Woods? She was the first female to earn a spot on the US team to the int'l math olympiad. Here's a link to an article about her:
<a href="http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=the+girl+who+loved+math&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D6d117e1589bc89da%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3Dthe%2Bgirl%2Bwho%2Bloved%2Bmath%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.findarticles.com%252Fp%252Farticles%252Fmi_m1511%252Fis_6_21%252Fai_62277745%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSSideBar%26ampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.findarticles.com%2Fp%2Farticles%2Fmi_m1511%2Fis_6_21%2Fai_62277745%5B/url%5D">http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=the+girl+who+loved+math&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D6d117e1589bc89da%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3Dthe%2Bgirl%2Bwho%2Bloved%2Bmath%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.findarticles.com%252Fp%252Farticles%252Fmi_m1511%252Fis_6_21%252Fai_62277745%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSSideBar%26ampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.findarticles.com%2Fp%2Farticles%2Fmi_m1511%2Fis_6_21%2Fai_62277745</a></p>
<p>(the second female was a homeschooler from NY named Alison Miller who won a gold medal in Athens last year)</p>
<p>Mesotired ~ Thanks!</p>
<p>Sagar ~ My kids agree: they just want to advance if it is possible.</p>
<p>Texas137 ~ I printed the article for her to read at breakfast. She has not heard of either girl previously. Thanks again.</p>
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Texas137 ~ I printed the article for her to read at breakfast. She has not heard of either girl previously. Thanks again.
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<p>for follow up... Melanie had an exemplary undergraduate career at Duke, including being a Putnam Fellow (the college equivalent of USAMO winner). She is now a math grad student at Princeton. The other girl is now a math undergrad at Harvard.</p>
<p>For all of you who see this before the test, remember that the penalty for guessing on the AMC 10 or AMC 12 is SEVERE. Don't guess. The way the cut-off scores work, getting approximately eighteen questions correct and LEAVING THE REST BLANK will qualify you for the AIME on the AMC 10. (Indeed, last year my son was a state champion on the 10B with such a conservative strategy, at sixth-grade age.) Answering fifteen questions correct and leaving the rest blank would similarly reach an AIME-qualifying score on the AMC 12, on which the questions are harder. (Each year a few questions are identical between the AMC 10 and the AMC 12 test that are given on the same day.) Most kids lose points on the AMCs by marking too many wrong answers that they should have left blank. </p>
<p>Here's a friendly request to the forum moderator and participants: please make sure not to discuss the Tuesday 1 February 2005 AMC 10A and AMC 12A tests until NOON on Thursday 3 February 2005, to ensure test security and fairness to all participants. Other online forums on which people discuss math tests are also observing this rule. </p>
<p>Good luck on the AMC tests.</p>
<p>reasonabledad: If your child is studying calc in year 9, i suggest u let him take AMC12. 15Qs in AMC10 and 12 are identical and if one has studied precalc, it is better off for them to take AMC12 test. For that one, 100 or above advances u to AIME. </p>
<p>I personally want to study for AIME and USAMO but in that case, I have a choice to make. Either to drop 1 or 2AP's and choose rather easier courseloads and focus on problem solving a bit more or just neglect the whole preparation for math contest business and trust my brain :D. I regret thta my passion for maths has developed at such a late age and I wish I was like your child and spend more time preparing for AIME and USAMO.</p>
<p>Well again, gd luck.</p>
<p>Tokenadult ~ Thank you for your advice. I'm afraid that I am completely new to the math contests (and my wife manages this aspect of the schooling anyway!), so I neither knew the strategic cutoffs, nor the need to be silent until after noon on Thursday. You may have prevented a serious faux pas on my part.</p>
<p>tlqkf2002 ~ Well, I don't think we knew that our D (9th grader now) had the option of taking the AMC 12. We just followed the guidelines...but it may be OK for this year anyway, since we want her to have at least one time of becoming familiar with the test. And as you noted, she has to budget her time since she decided to take four APs this year too, and a chem lab at the local community college. As I write this she is eating breakfast and reading the article that Texas provided. What a good and inspirational text.</p>
<p>When/how do they hear the results?</p>
<p>tlqkf is right about your dtr taking the AMC-12. It isn't harder, it's just that it covers material beyond algebra II that kids in 10 and below have generally not had. For kids who have had it, like your daughter, the odds of advancing to the AIME are better from the AMC12 than from the AMC10. If she's a near-miss on the first date, maybe she could take the AMC12 on the alternate date, Wed Feb 16.</p>
<p>The kids all compare their answers immed after the test, so they have a pretty good idea of how they did when they leave the room. AMC rules also allow them to keep the test booklets after they hand in the answer sheet. So they can circle their answers in the booklet and score themselves unofficially on Thursday when the answers will be flying around all over the internet. They'll be up on the AMC site w/in a few days. The teacher will get official results and list of AIME qualifiers by email in 2 or 3 weeks, and by regular mail in about 4 weeks.</p>