<p>Hi, so I saw a post earlier on how important math competitions are, and I have a similar question, but I wasn't sure whether to post it there or create a new thread, so I created a new one to be safe (Sorry; I'm new here).</p>
<p>I'm also a freshman in high school this year. I took the AMC 8 in both 7th and 8th grade, and I got a 16 and 20, respectively. I'm planning on taking the AMC 10 A and B this year, and I was wondering how important are making the AIME (and beyond)/AMC scores in general when it comes to applying to college? (I also kind of want to know exactly how much I should be cramming right now.)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>They’re impressive if you do really well in them, but it’s not expected that you’ll do math contests specifically. They’re just another possible EC you can do.</p>
<p>Over time (or lots of practice if you’re dedicated) math competition work builds up your problem solving skills and it can make you much more effective even in the engineering/physics field.
Enroll in art of problem solving courses or pick up the book to work with if you want to do well–you should try to cover every single problem the book throws at you if you want to do optimally, try solving them in alternative methods too. For a less serious approach, if you have a math club, attend all of its meetings and try to go to every (local) competition if you can.</p>
<p>I made the USAMO once and I can say it definitely makes your college application stand out. More importantly, the problem-solving experience has helped me in college, especially in harder math classes.</p>