USAMO Qualifiers 2009

Pre-College Topics High School Life
21

<p>Wow, you’re so amazing! Blue MOP again! Congrats! =)</p>

22

<p>Ugh… 3rd year qualifier for the British Version of the USAMO, 3rd year in the top 20 scorers, 3rd year not to make the IMO team… I really do have to learn not to suck at geometery.</p>

23

<p>Lol. Where are you, David Yang?</p>

<p>Mr. Black MOP in 7th Grade. :P.</p>

<p>But yeah. No USAMO for me this year. Epic failed the AIME.</p>

24

<p>David Yang randomly added me as a friend on facebook a while ago, from my interactions with him, he seems quite conceited…</p>

25

<p>Mm. I would be too though. Who cares what people think if you’re that mathematically capable?</p>

26

<p>Frankly, I don’t believe that ones success necessarily has a direct correlation with their intelligence, fame, or wealth. If everyone hates you due to your arrogance, what good are your intellectual abilities?</p>

27

<p>Oh, cool, a thread about USAMO! I got a… 2 =/ (@Databox, you were right about overestimating the score. I thought I was going to get 6 or something.) There’s always next year…
And a 7th grader made Black MOP? This just makes me feel better about my score lol. That is one mathematically-talented kid.
Did everyone hear about the changes that they will be making to the USAMO next year, including the addition of an USAJMO?</p>

28

<p>Haha, nice! A 2 is a really good score! =)
Yup, I definitely overestimated my score the first time I took USAMO.</p>

<p>Yeah, I really don’t like the idea of USAJMO.</p>

29

<p>The USAJMO seems like an interesting idea, but will certainly kick out some hard-working upperclassmen from USAMO. It looks like the USAJMO will be a joke to make (all the good underclassmen will go for the USAMO) and the USAMO will have a MUCH more competitive pool. 270-230 is such a bad split.</p>

30

<p>“The USAJMO seems like an interesting idea, but will certainly kick out some hard-working upperclassmen from USAMO. It looks like the USAJMO will be a joke to make (all the good underclassmen will go for the USAMO) and the USAMO will have a MUCH more competitive pool. 270-230 is such a bad split.”</p>

<p>Completely agree there. It’s really screwing some of the kids who mess up on their AIME a bit, but can potentially beast up Olympiad type problems. I think achieving MOP will be of the same difficulty though, at least in terms of cut-offs. It’s not like the MOP pool will ever end up in the bottom 230 of the qualifiers.</p>

31

<p>I definitely agree with both of you, the split should be somewhere around 350-150.</p>

32

<p>I dont like how only problems 1 and 4 will be used to determine red MOP. Even though i’m no longer a freshmen, the fact that two problems determine MOP qualification makes it seem more based on chance and what topics those specific questions are on.</p>

33

<p>what is this USAJMO i hear of</p>

34

<p>Here’s a basic overview:

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35

<p>I think it’d be better if there were more proofs, so a broader area of math would be covered. Some really smart people are stronger in some areas than others, and it would fail if the two problems on the USAJMO happened to be on their weaker areas. It would then become more of a game of luck and chance. And I have to disagree with the fact that 1 and 4 are always the easier problems. For instance, the moment I saw #1 on this year’s USAMO, I kinda just gave up right away (I fail at geometry), but I actually made some progress on #2. Not much progress, but at least I had some idea of what I was doing :P</p>

<p>I can see this is one way to make the test easier, but I’d rather have four proof-based problems and two of these “tie breakers” rather than the other way around. </p>

<p>Well this is still an interesting change though I think I’ll end up trying to qualify for the USAMO again next year anyways.</p>

36

<p>I was fortunate enough to make it the last two years. I am hoping that I can do math research this summer so that I can put some of the things Ive learned in math into real life. Next year, I am going to try really hard to make Black MOP, although it is very unlikely because there are so many people that are good at math.</p>

<p>Btw, DataBox, are you by any chance one of the top 10 national ARML individual winners (I saw your chances thread) , seeing that there were multiple people from the Bay Area that got it?</p>

37

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<p>Haha, exactly my case as well, I wish #1 was number theory, I would have had a legitimate shot at MOP…</p>

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<p>Only one person from our team made top 10, I narrowly missed out on it =(</p>

38

<p>One of my teammates (hes a red mopper this year) got the tiebraker question right in 30 seconds in his head by assuming that the intersection point was the orthocenter, but he only got 8 right so he did not get top 10.</p>

<p>Anyways, isnt this new format going to mess up the qualification process a bit? What if your school only offers one testing date for the AMC? That seems like it would be a huge disadvantage (like even bigger than before because whatever test you take will determine which olympiad you have a chance at making).</p>

<p>Im a senior next year so it wont affect me, but there are atleast 5 10th graders at my school that can all possibly get 10+ on the AIME next year so it will affect them.</p>

39

<p>“Estimations of scores for first time USAMO qualifiers are usually several times higher than their actual score. (Trust me, personal experience =D) I’m extremely doubtful that you scored an 8 or 9 without preparing for it at all…”</p>

<p>According to official scores, I did indeed score a 9 :P.</p>

40

<p>Are basically all the kids who were the top individual scorers for ARML on USAMO? I went there for the first time this year as a senior and scored a 6/10 and I was pretty happy about that lol. Those kids there are incredible smart.</p>