“AIME (or even USAxO) is not a hook. Not even a tip. OP’s nudge (not a tip, just a reason to keep reading, ) is the history.”
You can use whatever word you want or don’t want, but all “tippy-tops” ask for AMC/AIME scores, MIT, Cal Tech directly on their app, and Stanford, ivies in the supplements. It is very important, because they cannot differentiate the 800s these kids get on the SAT and Math 2 subject tests.
“I often feel when any kid leads with stats, wins, and titles, he doesn’t understand enough about what tippy tops want.”
Interesting that when I visit any faculty home page of a “tippy-top”, they don’t lead with how they will with work the undergrads and look at them as a whole person. No, they lead with stats and tiles, nobel laureates, pulitzers etc.
“The kid who has humility (and it shows throughout,) isn’t all about “impressing.””
That’s a little overrated, they don’t want braggarts but they definitely want kids who are very confident in their math and science abilities. If you’re the humblest kid in the world and you have the opportunity to take the AMC 10/12, and you don’t, it won’t look good.