AMC recently announced the students invited to sit for the USA Mathematical Olympiad. This is a tremendous accomplishment following exemplary performance on the AMC 10 or 12 and a high score on the AIME. The qualifiers from Texas are:
Every student representing Texas at the USAMO deserves to be very proud. However, Metroplex Math Circle is particularly proud that one of our most regular attendees is by far the youngest student on the national list.
Michael Ma, as a fourth grader received a perfect score on the AMC 10 and followed it up with a performance on the AIME that is beyond all but the best high school students. MMC cannot claim the credit for this terrific success (that belongs to Michael and his family) but Michael does exemplify the hard work and talent that Dr. Andreescu seeks to identify and encourage.
Please join us in congratulating Michael on his continued success.
Dr. Andreescu once again offered UT Dallas as a higher education site for this year’s AMC 10/12B. We were very proud of all of the Metroplex Math Circle participates who took the test. Following are the students who scored above 100 points (out of 120) on the AMC 10 and above 90 points on the AMC 12.
AMC 10
RUSSELL HOUSTON *
DANIEL HUANG *
AMY CHYAO * (SA)
MICHAEL HWANG * (SA)
ERIK NGUYEN *
JACOB CORDEIRO
NIHAL KODURI (SA)
SANGJUN YOO
DOMINIC YURK
JOSHUA CAI
AMC 12
ARNOLD LIAO *
KEVIN CHANG *
SIDDHANT MITTAL *
YEJIN KIM
ARI GAO
ROBERT TUNG
* = AIME qualifier
(SA) = Metroplex Math Circle Student Advisor
Please join me in congratulating these students on their strong performance. If you are a math circle participant who scored in this range on the 10/12A or at your own school please feel free to post in the comments below or e-mail your score to be recognized. Students who would like to receive their scores from the 10/12B can e-mail djcordeiro@sbcglobal.net
Dr. Titu Andreescu, former director of AMC and coach of the US IMO team will be giving a special lecture for those preparing for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). This will be a very challenging session befitting the caliber of the AIME examination. However, students who did not qualify this year but are working on AMC 10 and 12 preparation should benefit from the unique insights and strategies that Dr. Andreescu will provide.
Here is some information about the AIME:
The AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) is an intermediate examination between the AMC 10 or AMC 12 and the USAMO. All students who took the AMC 12 and achieved a score of 100 or more out of a possible 150 or were in the top 5% are invited to take the AIME. All students who took the AMC 10 and had a score of 120 or more out of a possible 150, or were in the top 1% also qualify for the AIME. For the 2008-2009 school year the date for the AIME I is Tuesday, March 17, 2009 and the AIME II is Wednesday, April 1, 2009.
The AIME is a 15 question, 3 hour examination in which each answer is an integer number from 0 to 999. The questions on the AIME are much more difficult and students are very unlikely to obtain the correct answer by guessing. As with the AMC 10 and AMC 12 (and the USAMO), all problems on the AIME can be solved by pre-calculus methods. The use of calculators is not allowed.
This Saturday we are pleased to welcome back Dr. Jonathan Kane. Dr. Kane’s lecture on vectors promises to be a very good one. Like many of our best lectures, it appears that Dr. Kane will start with a very basic and intuitive explanation of vectors and will build up to the use of vectors as powerful tools for solving complex problems.
Dr. Kane is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is a member of the AIME Committee and a co-founder of the Purple Comet! Math Meet.
Dr. Zuming Feng, coach of the US IMO team and author of multiple books on Olympiad problem solving, shared valuable techniques for solving the Diophantine Equations which occur frequently in problem solving contests.
The students worked through a series of increasingly difficult problems and Dr. Feng guided them through ways to leverage their number sense and algebra to limit the number of possible solutions saving them invaluable time in a contest situation.
If you missed Dr. Feng this weekend we are happy to say that he will be returning to Metroplex Math Circle on March 7th. The video below shows Dr. Feng discussing solutions to the 2006 International Mathematics Olympiad.
While many students take the AMC 10 or 12 to qualify to take the AIME test (in the hopes of progressing to the USAMO or IMO), there is another opportunity by participating in the USAMTS contest. The USA Mathematical Talent Search differs from these other tests because it is taken over several weeks and stresses the importance of clearly explaining a solution.
As opposed to most mathematics competitions, the USAMTS allows students a full month to work out their solutions. Carefully written justifications are required for each problem. The problems range in difficulty from being within the reach of most high school students to challenging the best students in the nation. Students may use any materials – books, calculators, computers – but all the work must be their own.
Richard Rusczyk’s Art of Problem Solving Foundations is the primary sponsor of USAMTS and he will certainly be able to answer any questions at his talk on September 20th.
Several postings have concerned the International Math Olympiad which is a bold aspiration for many Math Circle participants. But there are several steps on the road to representing the US on the IMO team and each one of those steps has its own challenges and rewards.
The USAMO is a six question, two day, 9 hour essay/proof examination. All problems can be solved with pre-calculus methods. Approximately 500 of the top scoring AMC participants (based on a weighted average) are invited to take the USAMO.
Just sitting for the USAMO requires a distinguished performance on the AIME, AMC 12 or AMC 10 tests.
The AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) is an intermediate examination between the AMC 10 or AMC 12 and the USAMO. All students who took the AMC 12 and achieved a score of 100 or more out of a possible 150 are invited to take the AIME. All students who took the AMC 10 and had a score of 120 or were in the top 1% also qualify for the AIME.
The AMC 10 and AMC 12 test are administered to hundreds of thousands of high school students. Many of the universities who routinely reject applicants with 800 SAT Math scores are requiring submission of AMC test scores.
A special purpose of the AMC 12 is to help identify those few students with truly exceptional mathematics talent. Students who are among the very best deserve some indication of how they stand relative to other students in the country and around the world .
To prepare for these challenging and potentially life altering tests, AMC offers the AMC 8 eligible to students through the 8th grade.
The AMC 8 is a 25 question, 40 minute multiple choice examination in junior high school (middle school) mathematics designed to promote the development and enhancement of problem solving skills. The examination provides an opportunity to apply the concepts taught at the junior high level to problems which not only range from easy to difficult but also cover a wide range of applications. Many problems are designed to challenge students and to offer problem solving experiences beyond those provided in most junior high school mathematics classes.
Math Circles have a great deal to offer beyond improving performance on this series of tests. However, Metroplex Math Circle is particularly fortunate to have as its Director, Dr. Titu Andreescu, the former Director of AMC and Coach of the US IMO team. He has generously shared his experience with MMC students to help them prepare for these critical steps on the road to the IMO.
Posted by Metroplex Math Circle 
Posted by Metroplex Math Circle 
Posted by Metroplex Math Circle 
This Saturday we are pleased to welcome back Dr. Jonathan Kane. Dr. Kane’s lecture on 
