<p>I can never seem to make it to the AIME some reason, even though I've taken lin alg, diff eq, multivariable, discrete math at community colleges... I know thats not that outstanding, but still, is there something wrong with my problem solving ability? I can do well in classes, but for some reason not on math competitions like the AMC. The weirdest thing is that I got accepted to MIT early, and my intended major is EECS. And I did do practice for the AMC, I went on aops for the last three weeks and did about 7 tests from previous years... iono if theres something wrong with my fundamentals in math or sth</p>
<p>The main math sequence in high school/college jumps right past combinatorics and number theory: discrete math. Maybe your discrete math class taught you a bit, but from my experience they don’t address the same kind of thinking, on the same level as the AMC/AIME. It’s probably been a very long time since you’ve done geometry, too. And all your math experience might be working against you, since you might be trying to use tools that are a bit too powerful while there are easier ways.</p>
<p>At this point, it doesn’t matter. It won’t ever count against you in college, and with all those courses, your math is probably strong anyway. People have said that competition math doesn’t equate to college math ability, even regarding people who made it to the IMO.</p>