MAA AMC contest

[Anonymous]

What is going on regarding the MAA AMC contest?


Kids are saying the national rankings are corrupted by cheaters

[Anonymous]

There are reports of poor proctoring at the places that allow the kids to take it on computers and kids using AI to answer questions. There is a wide amount of time when the test is offered so there are reports of people taking pictures of the tests and sending them out so kids can get the answers before the exam.

I know in the past few years that there were youtube videos with the test questions on them before the test. All this does is raise the test scores for the small group of people who cheat and make it harder for strong competitors who don’t cheat to make the cut off for AIME. I believe that AIME is given in a very controlled environment so once you are there cheating is harder.

Last eyar they lowered the needed score for AIME when they realized that there had been cheating, I see people suggesting that might happen this year as well. Most people were predicting far lower scores for the AMC10 then came out, like between a 93-96 for the A and even lower for the B. It was a hard test this year.

[Anonymous]

Lots of cheating. Many students found the test through WeChat.

[Anonymous]

Yep. It's cheating. My kid (who made olympiad last year and has always had DHR since 7th grade) got a 145.5 on the 12A and didn't make DHR. He's pissed. He knows 3 other kids who won awards at USAMO last year, including 1 who made MOP, and none of them had perfect scores. Yet apparently 300 random kids did.

MAA is dumb enough that they're giving the problems to China a week early and they're not using a lockdown browser to administer the tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. It's cheating. My kid (who made olympiad last year and has always had DHR since 7th grade) got a 145.5 on the 12A and didn't make DHR. He's pissed. He knows 3 other kids who won awards at USAMO last year, including 1 who made MOP, and none of them had perfect scores. Yet apparently 300 random kids did.

MAA is dumb enough that they're giving the problems to China a week early and they're not using a lockdown browser to administer the tests.

They need to move to paper only tests and everyone takes them on the same day, regardless of what country they are from. The higher scores are suspect and everyone knows it.

We thought my kids 96 on the AMC 10A would likely get him the AIME and were surprised that it didn't. The kids who are taking the test the way it is intended to be taken, honestly and working hard to do well, are getting screwed by the cheating. It would be helpful if the kids who saw the cheating happening actually reported it so that they could bust those kids but that doesn't seem to be happening.

[Anonymous]

China basically bought out all of MAA. What a shame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep. It's cheating. My kid (who made olympiad last year and has always had DHR since 7th grade) got a 145.5 on the 12A and didn't make DHR. He's pissed. He knows 3 other kids who won awards at USAMO last year, including 1 who made MOP, and none of them had perfect scores. Yet apparently 300 random kids did.

MAA is dumb enough that they're giving the problems to China a week early and they're not using a lockdown browser to administer the tests.

They need to move to paper only tests and everyone takes them on the same day, regardless of what country they are from. The higher scores are suspect and everyone knows it.

We thought my kids 96 on the AMC 10A would likely get him the AIME and were surprised that it didn't. The kids who are taking the test the way it is intended to be taken, honestly and working hard to do well, are getting screwed by the cheating. It would be helpful if the kids who saw the cheating happening actually reported it so that they could bust those kids but that doesn't seem to be happening.

So sorry for your kid. From all of the chatter on the AoPS forums, your kid deserved to qualify this year.

I disagree in the first point, though. Paper tests mean that the proctors have access before the test window opens, and that has been the source of some leaks. I would instead have everyone take the test online within the same 2-3 hour window on a lockdown browser. I hope they at least take some steps to secure the AIME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. It's cheating. My kid (who made olympiad last year and has always had DHR since 7th grade) got a 145.5 on the 12A and didn't make DHR. He's pissed. He knows 3 other kids who won awards at USAMO last year, including 1 who made MOP, and none of them had perfect scores. Yet apparently 300 random kids did.

MAA is dumb enough that they're giving the problems to China a week early and they're not using a lockdown browser to administer the tests.

The DHR isn’t even an honor roll anymore since the 2023 system overhaul. AIME and USAMO are much more important, so the very top performers can jahrugnoff the AMC.

The real victims are the kids who would have qualified and done well on the AIME, but don’t get a chance. From what I saw, there are probably are non-speedy talented students who could score a 9 or 10 on AIME, potentially JMO qualifying, but miss it because they didn’t qualify for AIME. Even scoring 7 or 8 on AIME is a big achievement, tainted and robbed from students who don’t even get the chance to sit for the computer scored test.

[Anonymous]

The hard truth is that AI makes math contests like this obsolete. The world has moved on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep. It's cheating. My kid (who made olympiad last year and has always had DHR since 7th grade) got a 145.5 on the 12A and didn't make DHR. He's pissed. He knows 3 other kids who won awards at USAMO last year, including 1 who made MOP, and none of them had perfect scores. Yet apparently 300 random kids did.

MAA is dumb enough that they're giving the problems to China a week early and they're not using a lockdown browser to administer the tests.

They need to move to paper only tests and everyone takes them on the same day, regardless of what country they are from. The higher scores are suspect and everyone knows it.

We thought my kids 96 on the AMC 10A would likely get him the AIME and were surprised that it didn't. The kids who are taking the test the way it is intended to be taken, honestly and working hard to do well, are getting screwed by the cheating. It would be helpful if the kids who saw the cheating happening actually reported it so that they could bust those kids but that doesn't seem to be happening.

So sorry for your kid. From all of the chatter on the AoPS forums, your kid deserved to qualify this year.

I disagree in the first point, though. Paper tests mean that the proctors have access before the test window opens, and that has been the source of some leaks. I would instead have everyone take the test online within the same 2-3 hour window on a lockdown browser. I hope they at least take some steps to secure the AIME.

Copies of the exam can be sent electronically the day before the exam so that proctors have time to print them off. Then they know any leaks came from the proctors. They might even be able to add something to make the tests unique, so it is clear which test was leaked. At the very least, knowing that the test was leaked by a proctor makes it easier to narrow down the responsible party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hard truth is that AI makes math contests like this obsolete. The world has moved on.

The ability to think for yourself should never be obsolete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hard truth is that AI makes math contests like this obsolete. The world has moved on.

Really? You think that we should lean on AI instead of understanding how to think through challenging problems? We want people to understand how to approach complex problems and how to solve complex problems because the machines are not always going to get it right. And because it is important that we understand how the machines are thinking and processing so we can make sure that they are working properly.

[Anonymous]

In the age of AI and cheating, the best solution would be to emulate mathcounts and have a very limited number of highly vetted proctoring sites. Perhaps they should only have universities proctor these exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hard truth is that AI makes math contests like this obsolete. The world has moved on.

This topic is out of your league. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the age of AI and cheating, the best solution would be to emulate mathcounts and have a very limited number of highly vetted proctoring sites. Perhaps they should only have universities proctor these exams.

+1