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[heron]

Anyone taken these before (American Mathematics Competitions)?

Last year I took the 8 and 10, got a 132 on the 10. Then I took the AIME and got a 5, not good enough for USAJMO.

This year I'm taking the 12 (tomorrow!), I'd take the 10 and try to get perfect but my school doesn't offer it and my neighbor (who used to administrate the AMC 10 for 20 or so students) moved away and I don't know who to contact to take it this year.

So anyway, has anybody else done these? Any advice?

[Axxle]

I took the 10 back in the day, had the highest score in the school, but really no clue what my score was now.  I'd suggest just trying out some of the old problems (http://amc.maa.org/a-activities/a7-problems/problem81012archive.shtml) just to make sure you know all the concepts and to flex your brain a little.  Good luck!

[heron]

Yeah, I just now tried the first 10 or so of the 12A (got them all right without paper/calc  ) (but those were the easy ones)
Didn't really understand number 25. Or the solution explanation on aops.

Thanks for that link; it has a lot of practice problems.

[florrat]

Nice. I've participated in the Dutch Mathematical Olympiad, even reaching the International Mathematical Olympiad.

If you want to participate in AMC 10, you could try to send an e-mail to someone organizing to ask what possibilities there are, probably there's an e-mail adress on the website.

To prepare yourself for the contest, it's indeed good (as axxle said) to try some of the old problems.

Good luck!

[Axxle]

I can help walk you through some of the problems if I can figure them out.  In fact I'm sure a lot of people on the forums could do that if you just post them here if you have trouble even with the solution (like #25 you mentioned)

[heron]

Gah, I'd do that, but I have to go to bed soon.
Maybe I'll post some of the trickier problems from the test itself (on the 6th after everyone has taken it of course)

[Axxle]

Missed that the test was tomorrow.  Remember to get a good nights sleep and to eat breakfast.  Those things help more than last minute studying, no joke.  And the best of luck to you!

[Dsell]

I'm in the same situation as Axxle, took them in high school, had the highest grade in my school on the 10 one year. I don't remember my scores though. I was always very good at math concepts although I never actually got the chance to take very advanced math classes. Also scored quite well on the math portion of the SAT. I'm not working with math or taking math classes anymore, though.

[shraeye]

I don't know who to contact to take it this year.

if your high school doesn't offer it, there could be opportunities to take the exam at a university/college that administers it, depending on where you live.

Most of these will offer the exam on the 'B' date, February 22nd.

http://amc.maa.org/registration/colleges/amc1012/2012-HS-CU-list.shtml

[dondon151]

Man I took the AMCs and was on the math team and stuff in high school, but I sucked at math. I got, like, at least above 100 on the AMC 12 and qualified for ARML, but I swear to god, I was, and still am, terrible at math. I lack any intuition that would make me good at these things.

[heron]

Man, I screwed up pretty badly on that test. I think were looking at the 85-90 range. But people seemed to think it was really hard (harder than usual), so maybe my score was okay.

I'm kind of mad at myself, because in science class I went over the problems that I missed and solved them one by one, and they weren't very difficult. And I made a few stupid mistakes. (Like, for one problem, I was like: Alright this is a permutation, not a combination. Permutation. It's a permutation. And then a solved a piece of it like it was a combination.)

Edit: I think I'll be taking the AMC 10B then, because I want to get a better score. I mean, if I 132 on AMC 10 last year, surely I can to better than a 85-90 on the 12. Can I take the 12A and the 12B?

[shraeye]

Can I take the 12A and the 12B?

Yes, the higher score is the only one counted, I believe.

[ConMan]

I took the Australian Maths Comp several times in high school, and got awards most times IIRC (but I don't think I ever scored a medal), and did the American one once or twice and I think there's a certificate sitting in a box at my parent's place somewhere. I should look over some of the past questions to see if I can still do any of it.

[heron]

Necro time!

I got an 120 this year, so big improvement. Yay. AMC 10 is next week, I am hoping for 144+, I think my odds of getting that are around 30%.

In other bragging/math competition news, I was county winner for the University of Maryland Competition and am going to the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament this Saturday.

[heron]

Yay! My team won for the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament!

It was quite a surprise, since on the first team round, we answered questions 1b and 2a and left the rest blank. There were fourteen questions. We did better on the second round, but still. I guess no one else understood all this crazy stuff about kets and higgs bosons. I did not expect to have to learn quantum mechanics to solve the math problems.
The second round was themed on the Morse-Thue sequence.

We were really excited, and it was pretty nice to beat Montgomery Blair who always has winners for the University of Maryland Competition.

The funniest thing is that we had a team of 4 and a team of just 1 person... and she got the highest score out of everyone on the first team round. By herself.

I just have to keep this streak going through AMC 10 and AIME now...