75 students to take AMC math contest

On Feb. 7 and Feb. 15, 75 members of Toga Math Club will take the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) 10/12 in the high school library in hopes of qualifying for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) in March.

The AMC is a no-calculator test consisting of 25 multiple-choice questions and lasts 75 minutes. Each answer marked correctly is worth six points, unanswered 1.5 and incorrect zero for a total of 150 points. Topics tested span Algebra, Geometry, Number Theory and Combinatorics. In addition, the AMC 12 also includes trigonometry.

Students scoring in the top 5 percent, or approximately top 2000 test takers, of their respective contest will advance to the AIME.

Based on an index calculated from both a student’s AMC and AIME score, the top 500 scoring students will advance to either the United States (Junior) Mathematical Olympiad (USA(J)MO), depending on the AMC they took.

Last year, 35 Saratoga students qualified for the AIME, four for USAJMO and three for USAMO.

“Since the AMC contest series is basically the flagship exam of our Math Club, our members have been preparing for it for a while,” said senior Tiffany Huang, the club’s co-president. “And with our positive results in the past, I hope to see similar results again for my last year at Saratoga.”