<p>I know USAMO shows a lot but does doing AMC and AIME, state math awards show anything or is that too common?</p>
<p>They're good, too. You should definitely put them down if you have them. It all goes towards completing a picture of you.</p>
<p>I doubt they are considered hook though right?</p>
<p>ROSS, MOP, PROMYS, IMO, ARML, etc</p>
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<p>ROSS, MOP, PROMYS, IMO, ARML, etc</p>
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<p>These are considered "hooks?"</p>
<p>I participated in ARML but didn't win awards, does that mean it's like meaningless? I'm a girl btw, I hope that helps some.</p>
<p>yes those are considered hooks because it shows the level of your committment and advancement. Not everyone gets into Ross, and not everyone is in IMO.</p>
<p>..oh and if you've taken Putnam and scored above a 20 like my friend who also happens to be a Rickoid too did, then that shows your awesomeness</p>
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<p>yes those are considered hooks because it shows the level of your committment and advancement. Not everyone gets into Ross, and not everyone is in IMO.</p>
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<p>staticsoliloquy, I hope you are correct.</p>
<p>How do people participate in Putnam before they matriculate at university? I've heard of that before, but I'm puzzled about how that works.</p>
<p>They have some connections with a local professor or take classes at a local university.</p>
<p>Gabriel Carroll was a Putnam Fellow while still in high school.</p>
<p>collegeperson, what math activities do you do?</p>
<p>I hope being in ARML counts for something, because I went last year. It shows my commitment to math and a pretty good amount of ability. I know it's not as difficult to get into as other competitions, but I'm only the second student in my school's history to go, so I thought it was special.</p>
<p>Alas, I did quite miserably in the competition, so I don't have much to show for it. But, at least I went.</p>
<p>But, Harvard will see how good I am at math when they read my math teacher's reccomendation. She wrote a really glowing rec, telling all about how well I've done on the math team and my independent study into AP Calculus BC. I think that's probably the best indication they'll get of my math ability. I'm by no means lopsided, but I think I can say that I'm strong in math.</p>
<p>Plus, getting that sort of information from the rec gives more personality to my math endeavors. Hopefully, that'll help.</p>
<p>That said, what is a Putnam Fellow?</p>
<p>If you can integrate sin(x^2) w/o using fresnels, your are very dang good.</p>
<p>Or if you can derive the summation formula for tangent based on its sequence... includes 1,1, 17, and other random numbers. </p>
<p>As for personal experience, regular "places" at city math meets, including a 2nd team all-city as a sophomore (hopefully 1st team this year). Aced both CC Calc classes I've taken (very tough courses), and I've got a good rec. from my math teacher. So I'm not worried about the math dept.</p>
<p>The Putnam is an undergraduate math contest (the biggest in the country, analogous to our AMC12/AIME/USAMO). Top honors usually goes to Harvard or MIT.</p>
<p>A Putnam fellow is one of the top five scorers on the Putnam. The theoretical max score is something like 120, but I do not believe anybody has ever gotten a perfect score. The median score is something like 2. To be a fellow, you need around an 80-90 depending on the year.</p>
<p>It is far harder to get a non-zero score on the Putnam than it is to get an 800 on the SATI math, if you want a basis of comparison that many can use as reference.</p>
<p>It is a proof-based competition and you have..nine hours?</p>
<p>By the way, hunter: use the Maclaurin expansion of sin, and the integration becomes trivial. Done without fresnels!</p>
<p>Also, I think it's ludicrous to ask someone to derive the Maclaurin expansion for tangent. There's no way that someone who did not know what the Bernoulli numbers are could even possibly fathom doing it. To define that as any test of mathematical ability is to cheapen the combined works of some of mathematics' greatest geniuses and hundreds of years' worth of research. </p>
<p>As a mathematician, I'm offended someone could even make a statement as ludicrously stupid as that.</p>
<p>agreed (w/ uber)</p>
<p>"Also, I think it's ludicrous to ask someone to derive the Maclaurin expansion for tangent. There's no way that someone who did not know what the Bernoulli numbers are could even possibly fathom doing it. To define that as any test of mathematical ability is to cheapen the combined works of some of mathematics' greatest geniuses and hundreds of years' worth of research.</p>
<p>As a mathematician, I'm offended someone could even make a statement as ludicrously stupid as that."</p>
<p>Wow, a bit irritable are we? I wasn't in anyway claiming that what I posted was the be-all and end-all of math tests, I was just saying that if you can do those kinds of things in HS, you obviously have some skills. </p>
<p>They were just some problems that my calc teacher gave us as "challenge problems" to have some fun with. People in years past in his class have derived the series, it's just something to have some fun with.</p>
<p>You know fun, right? Or am I "cheapening the combined works of some of mathematics' greatest geniuses and hundreds of years' worth of research" by attempting to dervive fun out of math? </p>
<p>"If could see farther than others, it was because I was standing on the shoulder's of giants."- Sir Newton</p>
<p>"How do people participate in Putnam before they matriculate at university?"</p>
<p>Attend practice sessions. One may be able to also "sit" the exam at the local university if proctors are sympathetic, although the committee will not grade it or accept it if it is submitted.</p>
<p>I have heard that some years ago when fewer undergraduates sat the Putnam that non-university students could, if allowed by local proctors, take the exam and submit it for informal, off the books grading. If this was once true, it is not true now.</p>
<p>People have derived:</p>
<p>tanx = (Sum from n=1 to Infty) B_2n(-4)^n(1-4^n)/(2n)! x^(2n-1) from scratch, without knowing anything about advanced mathematics prior to the class?</p>
<p>Oh, and your friends also figured, out, from scratch, that B_n = (n!)/2pi(i) * (Contour integral) z/(e^z-1) * dz/(z^n+1). Wow, for a bunch of kids taking single variable calculus, your friends sure know a lot about graduate-level complex analysis!</p>
<p>The point is, you basically said the equivalent of "A fun thing to try to see if you're a good biologist is to find a cure for cancer from scratch with nothing but a first-year background in biology. If you can do that, you're pretty good!" </p>
<p>And I like how you tried to steer the point away from the argument at hand (that you're clearly losing, by the way) by making a personal attack. Big two thumbs up to you.</p>
<p>Oh, and the quote--it has no application. You're claiming that your friends can see farther than others not by standing on the shoulders of giants but by standing on a two-foot bar stool.</p>
<p>the first step to recovering from being owned is to acknowledge it, hunter...</p>
<p>what is considered a good score on the AMC12? i qualified for AIME and went way past 100 and all that but i didnt bother putting it on because it didn't seem that impressive, esp. considering my AIME score. but now im not sure. what is a good score?</p>