How important is AMC/AIME?

<p>It seems any stats profile for an accepted Caltech student I read has done AMC/AIME. Does a vast majority of the student body have this or is it just CC? I love math, and I have decent scores-760 SAT I, 800 Math 2, and 5 on BC calc-will not participating in math competitions hurt me?</p>

<p>750 people from my school took AMC
57 got into AIME
and 5 got to USAMO
and we have about 1 Mopper per year
but that's just my school (#1 in california , and #2 in the US for AMC! WOOT!! both Caltech and MIT should serious consider accepting more than 2 students per year from my school)</p>

<p>if your school doesn't offer it, don't bother
it helps, but not having it shouldn't hurt you
but you should have still went to like the local math competitions if you really did like math.
i would say , mass majority of caltech acceptees probably took it, cuz they are probably more interested in it than the average person</p>

<p>your scores are nice
but remember Caltech's mid 50% rage for math SATI is 780 to 800, so 760 might not look that great even if you have a 800 on 2c to back it up.</p>

<p>i think i'm the only one from my school applying to caltech at least early. and only 3 people took amc and scored in the 90s, so much different situation. also, i do science competitions rather than math ones.</p>

<p>science competitions are great too!
i don't have science competitions cuz my teacher told me i can't go to the next level if i am not an American citizen or something. so i didn't bother >.<
maybe i should have taken some anyways
i only taken this thing callef Wonderfest at stanford for science</p>

<p>wow rainynightstarz... like 20 people from my school took it, 6 made AIME, and none made USAMO/MOP :P</p>

<p>gah i so would have taken it last year but we had a snow day on both the testing dates!!! i made AIME the year before that</p>

<p>aww snow days must suck!
it never snows in the bay area >.<
it doesn't snow at caltech either...
snows at MIT, but maybe a lil too much</p>

<p>my school math teachers gives LOTS of extra credit for those to takes them</p>

<p>6 out of 20 is really good!!! thats like 30% passing rate >.< but i think 6 like the number of students in my middle school that gets into AIME maybe it was 5... then 2 person got into USAMO as 8th graders my year... CRAZY, but then we have someone into USAMO as 8th grader about every year
my school is just really nerdy, like around 80 out of 400 seniors last year got into berk in 2006 (dono about this year)</p>

<p>AIME is a really cool contest!! makes me think, even though i get bad scores on them. I always end up brute forcing lol
in 10th grade
i got # 1,3,13,15 (first and last, third and third to last) right LOL no one else got 15 and 13 right, it was pretty funny >.< yay go brute forcing and wasting time</p>

<p>imagining my competition from my school for spaces at like Caltech and MIT=( grr i hope everyone else is applying Stanford SCEA or something</p>

<p>It probably won't "hurt" you but it is highly beneficial.
Try to see if it is offered locally first because caltech wants to know you tried. They want to see passion for math and science outside of the classroom and a great way to show it is to show them you do it outside of the classroom.</p>

<p>rainynightstarz, don't scare everybody on this website. It's already scary enough. =P Our school may be rather insane but a lot of people who get into caltech are from schools that aren't as competitive as ours. You don't absolutely have to be a USAMO person to get into Caltech...</p>

<p>The key is to show passion for math and science and that's something our school lacks. We have people who do things just to get into college and a lot of college officers can pick that out, which is why we don't get that many kids into MIT or Caltech. (Or only about 5 combined every year.)</p>

<p>niceilike: cc is scary and super inflated. =P but if you can take these contests you should.</p>

<p>DIANAL IS BACK!!!!</p>

<p>that's why i said science competitions are great too!! >.<</p>

<p>btw rainy, Caltech accepted 3 from our school and MIT accepted 2. The total number accepted by both of these school was 4 , which really isn't shabby considering the size of the freshman class at both of these schools.</p>

<p>i hope both of them accepts more next year , or i might have no chance cuz class of 08 is too smart....
i hope no one else from our school apply to EA >.< but i don't think that's gonna work, unless i convince them all to apply stanford SCEA LOL</p>

<p>i lost!
moo...</p>

<p>rainy, now that I've read your first note again. You stress about how 760's would not look that great on SATs. Honestly from what I've heard from admissions, (I'm not part of it) is that once you hit above 750 or 780. You're good to go and you shouldn't retake it 10x more to get an 800.</p>

<p>They care much more about passion for math and science and pretty grades.</p>

<p>well 760 wasn't in the mid 50% range i am just point it out to him, cuz caltech is crazy like that..
it's in MIT's mid 760 range</p>

<p>and for AMC and AIME
its like too late to do anything about it. so STOP WORRYING and STOP THINKING ABOUT IT!!</p>

<p>worry about the rest of your app!</p>

<p>
[quote]

cuz caltech is crazy like that.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>We're not that crazy, you know...</p>

<p>
[quote]

and for AMC and AIME
its like too late to do anything about it. so STOP WORRYING and STOP THINKING ABOUT IT!!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>what do you mean?</p>

<p>It's too late for rising seniors to put AMC or AIME score on the app. Both tests are in February and March.</p>

<p>Am an international here, can anymore explain what's AMC and AIME? What do they stand for?</p>

<p>yeah
OP just relax!!
if you can't do anything about it, don't worry anymore
at least you have a 2320 on your SAT1</p>

<p>my SAT 1 is still REALLY REALLY bad...</p>

<p>AMC - American Mathematics Competition.
AIME - American Invitational Matematics Exam.</p>

<p>AMC12 is a 75 min, 25 question, multiple choice test. Roughly the top 5% get invited to the AIME, which is a 3 hour, 15 question tests. This test is not multiple choice, but each answer will somehow be turned into an integer that from 1-999 (so it fits nicely on a scannable form).</p>

<p>There is also an AMC10, which is for younger kid. The top 1% also get invited to the AIME.</p>

<p>From here it gets a bit complicated, but roughly 500 AMC/AIME takers get invited to the USAMO, (Math Olympiad), which is a 9 hour test over 2 days. There are 6 questions in all. The top 12 (sometimes more) become TST takers, and are competing to become the 6 member US IMO Team. Also, about 60 kids get invited to the Math Olympiad (Summer) Program. </p>

<p>Back to the original question - MIT and CIT both ask for your AMC/AIME scores on their apps - right next to your SAT scores, though you are not required to take the test. It helps, though. My son, for instance, has 800s on his Math SATs. This is not a particularly impressive accomplishment at CIT or MIT. OTOH, his 150 on the AMC will stand out. </p>

<p>Of course, to take the AMC is not that easy, if your school does not offer it. Most do not. Starting last year, the AMC has been getting colleges to offer it, so regions can take it. </p>

<p>BTW, some schools in China, Taiwan and Korea offer it. These kids cannot go onto the USAMO. Canadian Schools also offer it, and those kids can go onto the USAMO, but not the camp, more qualify for the US Team.</p>

<p>just how smart IS the class of 2008?</p>

<p>cc inflates everything. unless you're a beast at everything possible, it's prbly just going to frustrate you. i mean, there are kids from my school that the most they did was QUALIFY (not place at) for states in sci olympiad, and just have good scores and good grades and they get into MIT/Caltech. If you think about it, together they take almost 2,000 kids. cc is prbly just the top 500 of them. and also i guess it does depend on the school alot-obviously if everyone smart kid in my grade did amc/aime, i would prbly have done it, but i think there are only like 4 kids on the math team and 3 want to do med and one wants to do business, so no competition for me. i think i'm going to limit the time i spend on here and work on my apps-glad i realized before i wasted too much time. an</p>