Are my AIME scores too low?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>Just wondering if my AIME (American Invitational Math Exam) scores are too low to be useful.</p>

<p>Freshman year: 5
Sophomore year: 6
Junior year: 5</p>

<p>I don't mean to sound like a whiner or something, but both my sophomore year and junior year I made REALLY stupid mistakes on the AIME (like arithmetic/reading the problem wrong errors...)</p>

<p>So I know my scores should have actually been: 5, 8, 7 (respectively)</p>

<p>Had my score been an 8 sophomore year I would have made the olympiad. (major fail)</p>

<p>Should I attempt to explain this somewhere in the application or would it make me seem too whiny? I know that several USAMO qualifiers also make a lot of stupid mistakes, so I'm definitely not the only borderline one this happens to.... </p>

<p>And also, I realize that 5/6/5 are kinda low for aime scores...will those badly affect my chances for MIT, Caltech, and the Ivy Leagues?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>Only on CC…</p>

<p>Unless you’re applying for a math/science major, HYPSM (or whatever it’s called now, haha) won’t put too much, if any, emphasis on your AIME scores. What about your other stats – SATs, APs? Recs and essays come into play, too.</p>

3

<p>I don’t know if they’re too low to be useful, but like smorgasbord said, not much emphasis is placed on AIME scores in admissions (unless you happen to score really well that is).</p>

4

<p>Colleges would definitely understand if you explained why you messed up. That is exactly the kind of additional comments they are asking for in the common app.</p>