When do AMC 8 results come out? Should I push my dd to do better next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

That's awesome! I disagree strongly with the PP who said AMCs were a poor return on investment, mostly because I hate looking at all activities through a ROI lens. Not everything needs to be about maximizing one's college application profile. If a kid loves math and enjoys competitions or learning more advanced math, then the kid is doing the right thing.

The funny part for my kid is that he backed away pretty significantly from contest prep and instead focused on a much deeper understanding of the math itself. He only did maybe 2 AIME mocks and no AMC 10 mocks. But, this is the year he got a 12 on AIME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

My 7th grader didn’t just participate in AMC 8 for the sake of it—he approached it with a competitive mindset. He prepped, put in the effort, and won. In the process, he learned the timeless lesson: winning a contest takes hard work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

My 7th grader didn’t just participate in AMC 8 for the sake of it—he approached it with a competitive mindset. He prepped, put in the effort, and won. In the process, he learned the timeless lesson: winning a contest takes hard work!

You don’t really win the AMC 8. He scored high? That is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

My 7th grader didn’t just participate in AMC 8 for the sake of it—he approached it with a competitive mindset. He prepped, put in the effort, and won. In the process, he learned the timeless lesson: winning a contest takes hard work!

There are different approaches to math and math competitions. Some kids are invested in crushing them, some kids are interested in seeing where they are compared to other kids. I am not surprised that a kid good in math can do as well as kids who have taken enrichment. If the enrichment was mainly focused on solidifying, building skills, and some level of advanced concepts then I am not surprised that a kid strong in math would do the same on the exam. The AMC 8 is meant to test math skills through 8th grade. A 7th grader in Algebra 1 is essentially taking 8th grade/9th grade math. They should be in a place to do well on the AMC 8.

I would be more surprised if a kid who is strong in math did as well as kids who have been in programs preparing for math competitions. They have learned how to approach different types of problems on a math competition test. It is very possible that a kid who is strong in math can crack the Honor or Distinguished Honor levels but I would think it is less likely.

[Anonymous]

Does it really matter whether enrichment resources, academic or sports, are paid or free? Ultimately, isn’t it the student’s effort and intent that determine how much they gain from any resource?

[Anonymous]

You can certainly push your DD—as long as "push" means encourage. Encouragement helps students step beyond their comfort zones and reach their full potential. If a advanced student is effortlessly acing what the public school class offers, it's up to the parents to seek additional challenges without overburdening that class teacher, who has many kids to take care of. And if a parent is poorly educated, like mine, and lacks the background to provide that support, external enrichment resources are the best affordable to bridge the gap. Kumon, RSM, Curie, C2, Aloha, Mathnasium, ... many choices .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

The funny part for my kid is that he backed away pretty significantly from contest prep and instead focused on a much deeper understanding of the math itself. He only did maybe 2 AIME mocks and no AMC 10 mocks. But, this is the year he got a 12 on AIME.

What does that look like? Courses? Books? Videos?

The focus of AIME prep is, of course, much deeper understanding of the math itself, as that is what the AIME tests.

Each year, fewer than about 50 people in the entire USA score 12+ by 10th grade, so strategies for doing so are not very generalizable across the wider population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Does it really matter whether enrichment resources, academic or sports, are paid or free? Ultimately, isn’t it the student’s effort and intent that determine how much they gain from any resource?

Paid activities cost more. That's the main difference from teee activities. That cost often pays for other people's efforts to create a higher quality or more time-efficient experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

The funny part for my kid is that he backed away pretty significantly from contest prep and instead focused on a much deeper understanding of the math itself. He only did maybe 2 AIME mocks and no AMC 10 mocks. But, this is the year he got a 12 on AIME.

What does that look like? Courses? Books? Videos?

The focus of AIME prep is, of course, much deeper understanding of the math itself, as that is what the AIME tests.

Each year, fewer than about 50 people in the entire USA score 12+ by 10th grade, so strategies for doing so are not very generalizable across the wider population.

Yes, but many kids prep for AIME by just grinding AIME problems. This can be somewhat helpful, because MAA sometimes recycles problems or has problems that use the same trick, but the value is pretty limited.

My kid instead focused on more olympiad style proofs and understanding a bunch of theorems that appear in olympiad level problems. Geometry was a weakness, so he spent time with the Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiads book.

[pettifogger]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

The funny part for my kid is that he backed away pretty significantly from contest prep and instead focused on a much deeper understanding of the math itself. He only did maybe 2 AIME mocks and no AMC 10 mocks. But, this is the year he got a 12 on AIME.

What does that look like? Courses? Books? Videos?

The focus of AIME prep is, of course, much deeper understanding of the math itself, as that is what the AIME tests.

Each year, fewer than about 50 people in the entire USA score 12+ by 10th grade, so strategies for doing so are not very generalizable across the wider population.

Yes, but many kids prep for AIME by just grinding AIME problems. This can be somewhat helpful, because MAA sometimes recycles problems or has problems that use the same trick, but the value is pretty limited.

My kid instead focused on more olympiad style proofs and understanding a bunch of theorems that appear in olympiad level problems. Geometry was a weakness, so he spent time with the Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiads book.

Makes sense, EGMO is a very legit book and might even be considered "the" one book to have for oly geo problems.

What's even more amazing to me, is that Evan wrote the book during his high school senior year.

[Anonymous]

When will the award announced/given?

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that my dd is getting 15-16/25, based on her practice tests at home. She only did about 3-4 practice tests two weeks before the real test. Should we push for honor roll next year?She is in 7th grade now. How much time do students usually spend on preparing this test to be on honor roll?

Eventually, I’d like her to try for AMC 10 and see if there is a chance for qualifying for AIME. I hope I am not doing the wrong thing for pushing her.

She is taking algebra 1 right now and finds it to be relatively easy. Because she is surrounded with many highly intelligent kids, she lacks a little bit confidence to excel in math (not the classroom math, but the more challenging question kind of math), though she’s got all As. She doesn’t know what her passion is yet, or if strong math skills would be relevant to her future passion, but She is moderately driven, meaning she cares a lot about her grades and tests in school, but not very keen to finish all her homework on AOPS.

Sorry about the rambling. Any advice from parents with similar kids would be very helpful. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will the award announced/given?

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that my dd is getting 15-16/25, based on her practice tests at home. She only did about 3-4 practice tests two weeks before the real test. Should we push for honor roll next year?She is in 7th grade now. How much time do students usually spend on preparing this test to be on honor roll?

Eventually, I’d like her to try for AMC 10 and see if there is a chance for qualifying for AIME. I hope I am not doing the wrong thing for pushing her.

She is taking algebra 1 right now and finds it to be relatively easy. Because she is surrounded with many highly intelligent kids, she lacks a little bit confidence to excel in math (not the classroom math, but the more challenging question kind of math), though she’s got all As. She doesn’t know what her passion is yet, or if strong math skills would be relevant to her future passion, but She is moderately driven, meaning she cares a lot about her grades and tests in school, but not very keen to finish all her homework on AOPS.

Sorry about the rambling. Any advice from parents with similar kids would be very helpful. Thank you!

Last year we had certificates emailed to us. One was for Honors, one was for 6th grader scoring above a score, and one was for his placement in his classroom. There is no real announcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s very hard to compete with Asian kids on AMCs who have been prepping since elementary school.

How many hours a week do they prep? 10? 20?

If my kid likes math I don’t want to kill it with drilling for competitions.

Some prep that much. Others are just good. My kid maybe spends 3-5 hours per week on extracurricular math. He just received his AIME score and will almost certainly qualify for JMO as a 9th grader.

My 7th grader loves math and did AMC 8 last yr and this year for fun. He has no interest in enrichment outside of school but does enjoy taking the test to challenge himself. He scored both equal to, and better than, a number of friends who prep many hours a week. So I’d say he’s “competing” just fine, although he’s really just doing it for himself and not to do better than anyone else.

The funny part for my kid is that he backed away pretty significantly from contest prep and instead focused on a much deeper understanding of the math itself. He only did maybe 2 AIME mocks and no AMC 10 mocks. But, this is the year he got a 12 on AIME.

What does that look like? Courses? Books? Videos?

The focus of AIME prep is, of course, much deeper understanding of the math itself, as that is what the AIME tests.

Each year, fewer than about 50 people in the entire USA score 12+ by 10th grade, so strategies for doing so are not very generalizable across the wider population.

Yes, but many kids prep for AIME by just grinding AIME problems. This can be somewhat helpful, because MAA sometimes recycles problems or has problems that use the same trick, but the value is pretty limited.

My kid instead focused on more olympiad style proofs and understanding a bunch of theorems that appear in olympiad level problems. Geometry was a weakness, so he spent time with the Euclidean Geometry in Mathematical Olympiads book.

AIME problems come with a set of solutions, 3-5 proofs for each problem.
It's not as organized as a text book, but it teaches those deep ideas, and seeing those multiple solutions for one problem gives a much deeper understanding than the 1 solution per problem you'll see in a book. And randomized problems give yla good spaced repetition experience.

So both are good.

If your kid did a lot of training in the past, then the difference this year may have come down to being more mentally mature and having had a year more of experience solving problems in general, improving fluency which is critical to a high speed test like AIME.

[Anonymous]

approximately how long after the test?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will the award announced/given?

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that my dd is getting 15-16/25, based on her practice tests at home. She only did about 3-4 practice tests two weeks before the real test. Should we push for honor roll next year?She is in 7th grade now. How much time do students usually spend on preparing this test to be on honor roll?

Eventually, I’d like her to try for AMC 10 and see if there is a chance for qualifying for AIME. I hope I am not doing the wrong thing for pushing her.

She is taking algebra 1 right now and finds it to be relatively easy. Because she is surrounded with many highly intelligent kids, she lacks a little bit confidence to excel in math (not the classroom math, but the more challenging question kind of math), though she’s got all As. She doesn’t know what her passion is yet, or if strong math skills would be relevant to her future passion, but She is moderately driven, meaning she cares a lot about her grades and tests in school, but not very keen to finish all her homework on AOPS.

Sorry about the rambling. Any advice from parents with similar kids would be very helpful. Thank you!

Last year we had certificates emailed to us. One was for Honors, one was for 6th grader scoring above a score, and one was for his placement in his classroom. There is no real announcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:approximately how long after the test?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will the award announced/given?

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that my dd is getting 15-16/25, based on her practice tests at home. She only did about 3-4 practice tests two weeks before the real test. Should we push for honor roll next year?She is in 7th grade now. How much time do students usually spend on preparing this test to be on honor roll?

Eventually, I’d like her to try for AMC 10 and see if there is a chance for qualifying for AIME. I hope I am not doing the wrong thing for pushing her.

She is taking algebra 1 right now and finds it to be relatively easy. Because she is surrounded with many highly intelligent kids, she lacks a little bit confidence to excel in math (not the classroom math, but the more challenging question kind of math), though she’s got all As. She doesn’t know what her passion is yet, or if strong math skills would be relevant to her future passion, but She is moderately driven, meaning she cares a lot about her grades and tests in school, but not very keen to finish all her homework on AOPS.

Sorry about the rambling. Any advice from parents with similar kids would be very helpful. Thank you!

Last year we had certificates emailed to us. One was for Honors, one was for 6th grader scoring above a score, and one was for his placement in his classroom. There is no real announcement.

Honestly, I don’t know. It feels like it took a few months for the H and DH to be released. AMC10 took about a month so maybe AMC8 will release soon.