<p>So, any tips?</p>
<p>Practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>Do lots of old problems, and get used to the formulas and tricks that pop up often. More importantly, through practice, you'll learn how to think about these problems. The single most useful talent you can have for these things is the ability to look at a problem and instantly see the best route to a solution--and if you can't see that, to at least know where to start looking.</p>
<p>At this point, it's too late to really prepare, it's like learning to play piano well in a week. You can however take some past tests at artofproblemsolving.com and see what needs clarifying. You should look over trig identities as well. The answer to the question you asked is very dependant on the person asking.</p>
<p>AMC isn't too bad...it's the AIME you've got to worry about. but make sure you're taking it at the right level...if you're a soph in junior/senior math, take the AMC 10...you'll have waaayyy better odds.</p>
<p>Actually, for making AIME, AMC 12 offers better odds regardless of grade.</p>
<p>As a full scorer on the AMC10, I think that mathematical maturity is not something you can achieve in a week. Success in mathematical competitions is the result of hard work and grueling practice.</p>
<p>I wish all of you the best of luck!</p>
<p>I took practice tests, I would have made it if I had taken last years AMC with a hundred something... (very close!).
Some questions i have about the test is:
Are the figures to scale?</p>
<p>Can the questions be done without a calculator?</p>
<p>Can you use a TI-83 on the test?</p>
<p>The new rule for the AMC is 1.5 points for no answer, does this mean that the 100 cut - off will go down? If this doesn't happen, then will there be more of the easy questions at the beginning?</p>
<p>Nothing will change except for the scoring, which means you must answer more questions to reach the AIME line!</p>
<p>What?! Darn it! That sucks!!!! Why couldn't I have taken it last year?!<br>
Are you sure?</p>
<p>This is a quote from the 2006 summary of results:</p>
<p>It should be noted that beginning in 2002 the number of points awarded for a blank response on the AMC12 was increased from 2 to 2.5. As a result, students could qualify for the AIME by solving as few as 11 problems. Analysis of student performance since then reveals that the average number of blank responses by AIME qualifiers increased from about 8 to 11. This trend, suggesting that many bright students are simply ignoring problems of even moderate difficulty, runs counter to our goals.</p>
<p>It should be emphasized that in making this change, we are not attempting to reduce the number of AIME qualifiers.</p>
<p>The change in the scoring formula was intended solely to force you to answer more questions in order to qualify for the AIME. The cutoff will not change unless the top 5% rule is invoked (as it was in 2001, I believe), and you shouldn't plan on that. As a happy side benefit, it is no longer possible to score a 99.5.</p>
<p>To answer naidu:</p>
<p>You may use any calculator without a QWERTY keyboard. 83+, 89, etc. are permitted, but the 92 is not.</p>
<p>Figures are <em>absolutely not</em> to scale. You may assume obvious things (like lines that appear to intersect do intersect), but nothing else. This has been AMC policy for many, many years.</p>
<p>All questions are solvable without a calculator of any kind. The writers are very, very scrupulous about this.</p>
<p>Also, note that there will be a USAMO expansion, which may be good news for you.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the answers! I think I can make it if I check my answers again. Thanks again!</p>
<p>semi-secret pro-tip: prime factorize 2007 beforehand. they always have the current year involved in a few of the problems somehow.</p>
<p>here, i'll even do it for you.
2007 = 3<em>669 = 3</em>3*223</p>
<p>Thank you very much, Karch.</p>
<p>i hate my life--i don't have school today and that means we can't do AMC, b/c the alternative date is over our Feb break. nooooooo!!!!</p>
<p>anyone else in same situation? any chance they'll issue a 3rd test? (i know they won't but i'm trying to be optimistic!)</p>
<p>School got cancelled for us, too... When's the make-up date?</p>
<p>(To be quite honest I'm only doing it because our teacher paid for it; I have very little interest in math competitions, since I pretty much suck at math. XD)</p>
<p>I am sort of in zel17's situation. Due to weather, there's no school today. Does that mean my school will issue test B? On thursday?</p>
<p>I'm guesing all of us are in the Midwest where this huge freezing cold front hit.</p>
<p>or in NY where intelligent ppl mandated low-sulfur fuels, which then all froze yesterday and all of our buses are out of commission...i have no idea how long this will last.</p>
<p>If school was canceled today - </p>
<p>You can still take this AMC tomorrow and they will be graded and everything, but it's still unofficial, so you won't be able to take the AIME, or be eligible for state / national awards. You will still be able to get intramural awards though, which are things like highest scorer in your school and stuff.</p>
<p>Your teacher, or whoever was running the AMC should have gotten a registration form to sign up for the B date, so to take it on that date, your teacher should register for that.</p>
<p>If for some reason though you can't do that, you could try to take the AMC at a college or university near you (there's a list at <a href="http://www.unl.edu/amc/b-registration/b1-archive/2006-2007/CU2007/2007-CU-list.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.unl.edu/amc/b-registration/b1-archive/2006-2007/CU2007/2007-CU-list.shtml</a>), or just run it on your own, and have like a club adviser or someone proctor you (you can register at <a href="http://www.math.unl.edu/%7Eamc/registration/%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.unl.edu/~amc/registration/</a>).</p>
<p>But to still take the AMC officially, you can only do it on the B date at this point.</p>