<p>3 hours…</p>
<p>Senior who got a sort of late start on math contests here.
I always BARELY make AIME and then do really well on AIME.
I got into USAJMO sophomore year, just AIME junior year.
Got 8s on the AIME both times.</p>
<p>Honestly I hate the actual AMC (10/12) because there’s so little time for each problem and I suck under pressure. I love the AIME because I get 12 minutes for each problem. Yay! :D</p>
<p>I like short amounts of time per question because it’s like mathcounts, which is where my primary experiences with math competitions were. I also like that it’s multiple choice, because it prevents me from making stupid (like really stupid) mistakes. I missed MathCounts nationals because i didn’t round to the correct digits. If it was multiple choice…</p>
<p>USAMOd as a sophomore, then bombed the AIME junior year…was too focused on perfecting my science fair project lol. Hopefully Caltech/MIT don’t mind too much, I’ll know in a month or so~</p>
<p>I started contest preparation in 8th grade last year. I’m practicing every single Saturday for AMC,
Any chance I’ll get far?</p>
<p>@lokker Unless you’re innately gifted, no. Every Saturday for such a short period of time is pretty insignificant in comparison to what USAMO qualifiers and high AMCers put in. Again, if you’re naturally gifted for math competitions: maybe - but your time would be best spent on something else.</p>
<p>buddy, people who make usamo practice hours a day for years.</p>
<p>I’m sort of in the same predicament: I’ve been doing math competitions since 5th grade, but never took them seriously until I made it to state in 7th grade. I slacked off last summer in terms of studying, and I feel like it’s going to set me back enough and encumber me from making it to USAMO (I hadn’t even heard about AIME and USAMO until about a year ago… Obliviousness!) (didn’t know obliviousness was a word until autocorrect didn’t highlight it. Obliviousness - pun intended).</p>
<p>So basically, I made USAMO in 10th grade with an 11 on AIME, then proceeded to score a 4 on AIME the following year…(it was the 2011 AIME I).</p>