<p>No. It is 6pts for a right, 2 for a blank, 0 for a wrong.</p>
<p>So we have 6x + 2(25 - x) = 100</p>
<p>x = 12.5, rounded up to 13. So yeah, I would qualify. Would It look bad if I got 13 right, for sure, and then just everything else blank, and walked out. I thought it might look bad as someone who just wants to qualify.</p>
<p>That is incorrect sagar_indurkhya . It is 6 right, 2.5 for a blank, 0 for wrong. Look at any recent test (2002,2003,2004)</p>
<p>I was wondering when the MIT forum would collapse into math arguements and equations. </p>
<p>Now I feel at home.</p>
<p>anotherapp is right, I was wrong. It's 2.5 for a blank.</p>
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<p>"Would It look bad if I got 13 right, for sure, and then just everything else blank, and walked out."</p>
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<p>I don't think it would look bad. But you'd feel pretty foolish if you did that and then made a couple of arithmetic mistakes on easy ones.</p>
<p>on the 2004 test, the only i didnt get was the one with the circles inscribed the bigger circle, i couldnt find a way of how to find the radius of the other two circles by not graphing it on a plane. 2002 test was fairly easy, there were some questions i couldnt do.</p>
<p>My S took the AMC for the first time last year and qualified for USAMO. His strategy on th AMC was to only answer the ones he was sure he had the correct answer to, and maybe one or two where he felt he felt he probably had the right answer. Of all the ones he answered, he only had one wrong, and it was one of the ones he was unsure of.</p>
<p>what was your S's overall score? on the aime?</p>
<p>The cutoff last year was 210, and he just made it with a 213.5 - got an 8 on the AIME. He did better on the actual USAMO scoring in the top 20%.</p>
<p>did u buy him one of the prep books like AoPS to do so well? I do it the dumb way solving as many problems as I can ... any advices?</p>
<p>I had gotten him "The Art and Craft Of Problem Solving by Paul Zeitz which he used to help study. I think the AoPS books on the website are similar. Since then he has discovered that the AoPS website has a wealth of information and he has been using that to study for this year. He only prepared for the AIME and the USAMO in his spare time for 2-3 weeks before each test., so starting to practice now should definitely help. </p>
<p>He says that being very good at math competitions is different from being very good at math. To be successful at competitions you have to be very creative and work quickly and accurately, so practice is important. Good Luck!</p>
<p>do you know your son's name on AOPS? i think i know who it is... if it's who i'm thinking of, we're on the same ARML team.</p>
<p>I made usamo sophomore year and I'm applying RD. Does it help a lot for mit?</p>
<p>Making USAMO as a sophomore is quite rare, so that will stand out in an application to any of the top math schools. It's not a sure thing for admission to the school of your choice (I have heard on AoPS of several USAMO qualifiers who didn't get into their top choice schools) but it helps immensely.</p>
<p>I agree with tokenadult that it will stand out at places like MIT. They do ask for AMC and AIME scores on their application. When talking to college professors my S found that they were much more interested in advanced course work than performance in math competitions. They said that a good performance in competitions demonstrates a talent in doing tricky problems. However, advanced course work demonstrates an interest and ablility in doing higher level math. </p>
<p>cats- I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>Wrong! Making USAMO as a sophomore is marginally easier than making it as a junior. Also, I'd say it's more important to get a good score on the USAMO (something I failed to do...) than make it. But that's just a hunch.</p>
<p>hmmmm....i suppose self - studying multivariabe, number theory, and analysis wouldnt get me in. And if i make the USAMO...</p>
<p>number theory definately helps. And I'm not sure what multivariable calculus is like, but I'm sure that it will give you a much better understanding about functions and thus it will still help you in those AIME or USAMO Q's. The questions usually have I think at least one function related Q.</p>
<p>I agree w/ Platypean - making usamo as a sophomore is a little easier than as a senior.</p>
<p>tongos - the number theory and analysis will definitely help you with usamo. Multivariable probably won't, unless they included some extra subjects with it (like sequences and series). But I agree w/ cookiemom about advanced courses being even a bigger help in admissions than contests. There are people who are extraordinarily good at math who are not interested in competing, or who don't have enough school support to get involved in competitions. Most of the kids who do really well on usamo also have a lot of advanced courses. The 50% of usamo-takers who make a 2 or less may be really good at solving tricky problems (that's how they qualified), but may not have learned to write proofs yet because they haven't had any post-calculus courses.</p>
<p>How does number theory and real analysis help? Could you give me specific problems? </p>
<p>And Texas, are you sure the qualifying floor is 180. I say this because I got indices of above 180 the last two years, but didnt qualify.</p>
<p>both number theory and real analyis generally involve proof-writing is all. I didn't have specific problems in mind. <a href="http://www.artofproblemsolving%5B/url%5D">www.artofproblemsolving</a> is a good place to discuss specifics. (I sponsor a math team that has had usamo qualifiers every year for several years. But I don't actually know how to do usamo problems myself).</p>
<p>I came up with the 180 because the AIME floor for the past 2 years was 8. If the bottom usamo qualifier from the amc-12 made the lowest possible score, that would be 100 on the amc-12, plus 80 for the aime score of 8 = 180. Of course, it's possible that the person who set the aime floor did better than 100 on the amc-12 (but it usually isn't a huge amount better). Was your index just a little over 180 with an aime score less than 8? If so, that would mean you may have just missed being in the first group selected, then may not have had a high enough aime score to be in group 2.</p>
<p>It's confusing. Here are the rules from the amc site:</p>
<p>Selection for the USAMO will be made according to the follwing rules:
1. The goal is to select about 250 of the top scorers from the prior AIME and AMC 12A, AMC 12B, AMC 10A and AMC 10B contests to participate in the USAMO.
Selection will be based on the USAMO index which is defined as 10 times the students AIME score plus the students score on the AMC 12 or the AMC 10. </p>
<ol>
<li>The first selection will be the approximately 160 highest USAMO indices of students taking the AMC 12A or AMC 12B contest.
The lowest AIME score among those 160 first selected will determine a floor value. </li>
</ol>
<p>3.The second selection of USAMO participants will be from the highest USAMO indices among students who took the AMC 10A or AMC 10B and the AIME, and got an AIME score at least as high as the floor value. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The student with the highest USAMO index from each state, territory, or U.S. possession not already represented in the selection of the first and second groups will be invited to take the USAMO. </p></li>
<li><p>To adjust for variations in contest difficulty, the number of students selected from A & B contests will be proportional to the number of students who took the (A & B) Contests. </p></li>
<li><p>The selection process is designed to favor students who take the more mathematically comprehensive AMC 12A and AMC 12B contests.</p></li>
</ol>