American Math Competition (AMC) moved earlier, catching some off guard

Math competitors like junior Dyne Lee are feeling extra pressure this fall. The reason: The AMC 10 and 12 dates have been moved to November from their traditional late January and February time frame. 

The AMC is a competition for high school and middle school students that assesses their knowledge of math and is used to rank students nationally and internationally. It is hosted by the non-profit organization Mathematical Association of America (MAA). There are two tests: the AMC 10, which can be taken by those in 10th grade or below, and the AMC 12, which can be taken by those in 12th grade or below. 

Historically, this competition is hosted yearly by the Math Club in late January or early February, often garnering around 75-100 students. This year, however, the test is being offered on Nov. 10 and Nov. 16.

High scorers on both exams are invited to take the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), a 3-hour-long contest, typically in March. However, the MAA often takes the majority of February and early March to grade the test papers of the approximately 30,000 people who take the AMC. This results in students not knowing the cutoff scores or whether or not they made the AIME until mere days before the actual test. The MAA has moved the dates to fight this historically tight turnaround. 

Sophomore Advaith Avadhanam has been qualifying for the AIME since 7th grade. In 2019, he had a borderline score and was not sure if he would actually be able to take the exam.

“It was definitely not a pleasant experience,” Avadhanam said. “I think the MAA is making the right decision [in moving the test to an earlier date] because it is really difficult to just find out they made it the day before the test.”

Avadhanam supports the test date being moved earlier because it allows seniors another chance to put AIME qualification on their college applications and lowers the risk of the winter storms that have plagued schools in the East Coast, which have disqualified entire schools in the past.

According to Avadhanam, “[the earlier testing date] gives contestants more time to prepare for harder contests [AIME and USAMO].”

However, the November competition date has caused significant stress to many test takers, such as Lee, since it causes the same amount of competition prep to be done in a smaller time period.

“I didn’t really start studying until recently,” Lee said. “I don’t think I’ve had as much time as I usually would.”

Although MAA had released to competition managers in 2018 that the change would take effect starting the 2021-22 competition cycle, they didn’t release a public statement until about a year ago. Redwood Middle School’s competition manager at the time, PJ Yim, had informed contestants of the planned change. 

Despite this, Lee believes that the MAA should have been more transparent about the change and released the information publicly, rather than just to individual competition managers.

The November test date also impacts Redwood and Saratoga High’s math clubs. The high school club is hosting a series of four crash course lessons on each of the main subjects in competitive math: algebra, geometry, combinatorics and number theory. Officers from the club believe that these lessons are not adequate preparation for the contest due to the extensive practice required to do well on the exam.

Junior Anthony Wang, a head coach at Redwood’s Toga Junior Math Club (TJMC), said that TJMC shares the same concern.

“We only have about five lessons before the exam and are cramming each subject into only one week,” Wang said.

Another concern that the Toga Junior Math Club has faced is choosing which middle schoolers will be given the opportunity to take the AMC 10. While there are no official restrictions on who can take the AMC 10, the club has historically only allowed top scorers on the AMC 8 to take the AMC 10 due space constraints.

As the AMC 8 will take place in January after the AMC 10/12, the club cannot simply invite AMC 8 top scorers anymore. The club is still searching for solutions as to how many and where the students will take the AMC 10.

Wang believes that MAA’s decision for earlier AMC 10 contests has the potential to improve the contest experience for students. He thinks the loss of a couple months of preparation time is worth the tradeoff, and will not impact the majority of contestants with the potential to qualify for AIME.

“Success in these competitions is based on several years of preparation,” Wang said. “The vast majority of people do not meaningfully benefit from a couple extra months, especially during school.”