Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment AMC8

I am in a district of over 100,000 students and nothing is ever mentioned on our website - not even when the students qualify for AIME (top 2.5% on AMC10 or top 5% on AMC12). We do have some schools in our district that offer the AMC8 or AMC10/12 but again no advertising. DS13 has been taking AMC8 since 4th and AMC10 since 5th but at an area university because his schools didn't offer them. This is the first year that a high school in our district offered a seat to DS out of the blue, although the administrator knew that DS is good in math. We declined the seat because it would have been more inconvenient to take DS out of his classes and travel to the high school.

It's not about the tools but how you use them. The AMCs are all about problem solving ability. DS, who is half-way through his school's version of Pre-calculus, is just now able to solve most of the AMC10 problems (under test conditions). As for AMC12, he tried one sample test and there were many problems he couldn't solve and quite a few of those he still wouldn't be able to solve even with extra time.

We moved DS to a charter school in 6th grade that was doing the AMCs. We did not know about them before that as our fairly large school district does not offer them, even in the high schools. If you want to take the AMCs it is possible to call around and find a school that will let you come but it is a hassle.

DS can solve the AMC10 questions usually but time has been an issue for him in the past. He qualified for AIME in 6th but did not come close last year scoring in the 80s. He really wants to qualify again and has worked hard this year and I think he has a good chance.

From taking old tests he actually has an easier time qualifying on the AMC12s given the actual cutoff which was used. He typically cannot do the last 4 questions or so on the 12 but does well enough on the earlier ones. Historically the cutoff for the 10 and 12 was around 120 and 100, respectively.

All the kids will write the answers down and the kids will usually compare and he will also check against AoPS when they go over the solutions.

Ds has never received a pin it would take a perfect score.

I think you may be right. I am confusing/mixing AMC8 with AMC10/12. There is a pin for top scoring AMC10 or AMC12 per test site - or at least there was through last year. Then top-scoring two years in a row yields a bronze medal, three years a silver medal and four years a gold medal.

You are correct. I was just saying that it would take a perfect score because several kids score a perfect paper each year.

AMC Awards

There is a pin for AMC 8. From the linked site - "School Winner Pin, AMC 8 - Given to the student in each school with the highest score"

It would only take a perfect score if there was someone else at the same school with a perfect score. In the latest AMC8 there were 268 perfect scores. There were 1851 team scores, so students from at least that many schools, plus schools with individual test takers but not teams.

Example - pin for high score at DD12's middle school went to an 8th grader with a 22. If she had scored a 23, she would have won the school pin

She probably would have won a pin with a 22 also, sharing the title of First place with a tie score.

Unless they have a tie breaker.