Understanding the AMC Exams: An Introduction

AMC or the American Math Competitions is a friendly competition made accessible to students all over the world by the MAA (Mathematical Association of America), providing benchmarks for proficiency in math. The MAA AMC program positively impacts the analytical skills needed for future careers in an innovative society. They are a series of math exams conducted for middle and highschoolers worldwide. The paper comprises a set of 25 increasingly difficult multiple choice  questions that challenge students to push their boundaries. The AMC has 3 different exams:

AMC 8: Attempted by students in grades 6-8 (40 minutes)

AMC 10: Attempted by students in grades 9-10 (75 minutes)

AMC 12: Attempted by students in grades 11-12 (75 minutes)

Scoring

The AMC 8 exam awards participants a point for each correct answer, while incorrect or unanswered questions do not receive any points. The AMC 10 and AMC 12 exams, which each have a maximum score of 150, utilize the following scoring system: a correct answer earns 6 points, an unanswered question earns 1.5 points, and an incorrect answer earns 0 points. There are two AMC 10 and AMC 12 exams each year, and students are encouraged to attempt both tests, with the highest score from the two attempts being considered.

Qualification and levels of achievements:

AIME: By falling under the top 5-15% percentile of AMC 10/12 participants, students can qualify for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination). This number changes every year. More details for the same can be found on the following website:

https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_historical_results

Honour Roll: Award given to the top 5% of scorers on the AMC 8,10,12 exams respectively

Distinguished Honour Roll: This is an award given to students within the top 1% of all scorers on the AMC 8,10,12 respectively.

The following are the qualification statistics from previous years:

From the statistics provided above, the ideal number of questions one should solve correctly in AMC 10 is 15 -16 whereas AMC 12 participants should aim for 13-15 correct questions to guarantee AIME qualification. This is assuming all questions attempted are correct. 

Test Taking Strategies in the AMC 10 & AMC 12 Exams

How many questions should I attempt?

Unlike most MCQ tests, leaving a question unanswered yields more points than randomly guessing and choosing an incorrect answer. Hence, attempting all the questions is not the ideal approach to the AMC exam. 

The questions on the AMC 8, AMC 10, and AMC 12 can be broken down into three categories based on their difficulty levels:

1. Easy Questions (Scorers): Q nos. 1-8
2. Moderately Difficult Questions: Q nos. 9-14
3. Difficult Questions: Q nos. 15-18
4. Extremely Difficult Questions: 19-25

It is imperative to solve all 8 easy questions to achieve a desired score. In order to qualify for the AIME, AMC 10 students should solve 5-6 questions between 9-14 and try to solve 1-2 questions from the difficult section (15-18). AMC 12 students should try to solve 5-6 questions from the medium section and try and solve 1-2 more questions in the remainder of the test.

Time Management Techniques

Since the question difficulty becomes exponentially harder, one should work through the initial questions quickly in order to have time to attempt a substantial number of questions. We recommend that each section of the paper should be attempted separately using the following time breakup. A common pitfall for many participants is lingering over a question for an extended period of time. In order to stick to the strategy, it is important to know when to “Drop the Gun and Run.” The question can be revisited. Staying too long on a question could significantly reduce your time to maximise the number of questions you solve. 

Preparation Techniques for the AMC 10 & AMC 12 Exams

1. Conceptual Clarity: The exam covers a wide range of topics. Familiarising oneself with the concepts required for the test should be the priority.
2. Mocks: Past Papers are accessible on the Art of Problem Solving website. In order to maximise the effectiveness of your mocks, we recommend the following strategy:
3. Complete the paper within the stipulated time (40/75 minutes) 
4. Once complete, give yourself an additional 30 minutes to continue solving as many problems as possible. 
5. After you complete the extra half hour of solving – go through ONLY the answers. Re-attempt questions that are incorrect
6. Finish by checking the solutions to all the problems you could not solve

Problem Solving Strategies in the AMC 10 & AMC 12 Exams

There are many different problem solving strategies that can be used. The following are some that we recommend: 

1. Do Something: Take any action like drawing a diagram or listing values to break the mental barrier and find a way forward in solving the question.
2. Engage in Wishful Thinking:Try to incorporate elements you wish were in the equation to stimulate correct thought direction.
3. Solve a Smaller Version of the Problem: Simplify the problem by tackling trivial cases first. 
4. Eliminating incorrect choices: Rule out impossible options in multiple-choice questions to find the correct answer. 
5. Avoid Hard Work!: Simplify equations to reduce calculations and minimise errors. 

Looking to participate? Check out our cutting-edge AMC courses for AMC 8, AMC 10 & AMC 12!