AMC qualifiers look toward AIME

From the two rounds of the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) held on Feb. 5 and Feb. 20, 12 students who took the AMC 10 and nine who took the AMC 12 qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME).

“Overall, we had a good turnout for the AMC contests both this year and last year,” said junior Priyanka Krishnamurthi, the treasurer of math club. “Even though one of the exams fell during the break, we still had many people show up for the test.”

This year the cutoffs for the AMC 10 were 108.0 in the first round and 120.0 in the second round. For the AMC 12, the cutoffs were 88.5 and 93.0, respectively. Only the top 2.5 percent of AMC 10 and the top 5 percent of AMC 12 takers can qualify to take the AIME.

Both the AMC 10 and 12 include 25 multiple-choice questions, and students are given 75 minutes for the non-calculator test.

Qualifiers from the AMC 10 were freshmen Alexander Li, Elizabeth Li, Celine Liang, Brendan Ney, Nathan Ney, Allen Shen, Sean Shi, Dorothy Tang and Kristine Zhang and sophomores Kevin Chiang, Landon Chow and Michelle Luo. Qualifiers from the AMC 12 were juniors Edgar Chen, Nolan Chen, Jeffrey Y. Chen, Robert Eng, Krishnamurthi and Matthew Lee and seniors Kabir Chandrasekher, Amanda Chow and Edward Dong.

“Having 29 to 30 students qualify for this difficult test from just these two schools [Redwood and Saratoga over the last two years] is definitely an achievement,” Krishnamurthi said. “I hope we continue to do well in the math competitions to come.”

The two rounds of the AIME will be held on March 14 and April 3. Qualifiers will go on to compete at the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) on April 30 and May 1.