whos in the AIME?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
21

<p>A friend of mine scored an 8 two years ago and made it to USAMO. I failed to qualify for the AIME because I have never been good at geometry and probability (and I'm in Diff Eq. in high school...stupid easy math subjects which I can't remember...) I have heard the AIME is tough, but do able. The scoring is simply 1 point for getting the right answer. Total of 15 points possible. Typically an 8 will automatically qualify you for the USAMO. Total scoring of both AIME and AMC is 10 x AIME score + AMC score = Composite. The composite changes every year, so no one has any idea about this year.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you all.</p>

22

<p>Thanks for the advice, texas! :) So while I'm still quite unfamiliar with the problem-solving at the AIME, perhaps I can become more familiar from studying past AIME exams at kalva.demon.co.uk. The first question always should employ some tricks - I really should aim to find it on problem 1 so that I can at least get one easily right and aim for a 2 or 3 (which should satisfy me this year).</p>

23

<p>for a crash course in solving AIME problems, go here:
<a href="http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Classes/AoPS_C_Enroll.php#class0%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Classes/AoPS_C_Enroll.php#class0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

24

<p>Thanks for the link. :) Feb. 27 is my 16th birthday - so maybe I could requst it as a birthday present. But I dunno - I want some AP prep as well - hmm..</p>

<p>But most definitely the link can help others.</p>

25

<p>jaug1, a score of 8 on the AIME will not qualify you for anything. As you indicated, the composite score is obtained by adding your AMC score to 10X your AIME score. It is this index that serves as the qualifying factor in the USAMO. But i guess if you can get an 8 on the AIME, then you probably got high enough on the AMC to get around a 210 which is the average index.</p>

26

<p>"(and I'm in Diff Eq. in high school...stupid easy math subjects which I can't remember...)"</p>

<p>Which is kind of ironic, don't you think? Easy math subjects that are HARD to do? =)</p>

<p>8 on the AIME is only useful if you are sophomore or below and can qualify USAMO with just the floor score.</p>

27

<p>the AIME floor varies. I think it was 8 the past 2 times, but the year before that it was 7.</p>

28

<p>texas, i think it was 7 last year, 8 the year before, and 6 the year before that.</p>

29

<p>could be right, tetrahedron. I'm only completely sure that it was 8 in 2003, because that was unusually high and I had a couple of kids in my group who just missed it. Six years ago (when they had a completely different system for selecting USAMO qualifiers and when the AMC10 was unusually easy) there were some kids in 9th grade and below who qualified for USAMO with AIME scores of 4. Anyway, the point is that the number varies.</p>

30

<p>Yeah, my friend was a sophomore when he made it (we are both seniors now). </p>

<p>Oasis, my memory for 8th grade mathematics is so poor it is beyond belief. Oh well...its off to college for me :).</p>