<p>Well, the title says it all. Is it worth sending in an update to Harvard, or any other top tier college?</p>
<p>Send it. Will it make a difference? Probably not, but it certainly wonât hurt you.</p>
<p>OP- Iâm in the same dilemna. I feel like it wouldnât matter much because Iâm betting a lot of people who applied to Harvard already have AIME on their app, so it wouldnât really set you apart. But, I guess it doesnât hurt to send it.</p>
<p>Same answer for USPHO Semi-Finalist?</p>
<p>AIME qualification shouldnât be worth an update, unless you havenât demonstrated your competency in math to the college, e.g. got low grade in Algebra, did poorly on math section of standardized tests. A USPHO semi-finalist may be worth an update.</p>
<p>For 2008, there were 4,143 AIME qualifers from the AMC 12A alone:
<a href=âhttp://www.usamo.org/e-exams/e7-aime/e7-1-aimearchive/2008-aa/T12-AQ-Stats.pdf[/url]â>http://www.usamo.org/e-exams/e7-aime/e7-1-aimearchive/2008-aa/T12-AQ-Stats.pdf</a></p>
<p>Exactly. Doesnât seem so special if around 4,000 people got it.</p>
<p>Wait, isnât semifinalist for USPho just clearing the cutoff for the F=ma exam?? Letâs not forget that the math olympiad exams are much more difficult than the science onesâŠ</p>
<p>Having said that, Iâm sure an update to the college would not hurt you in anyway.</p>
<p>EDIT: Before people start calling me out for being biased, when I say âdifficultâ, I am trying to say that the math olympiads (AIME and above) require more intuition, innovation and creativity than do the science Olympiads. For example, for the Biology Olympiad and for 90% of the Chem Olympiad, if you know all the facts you are likely to do extremely well. However, with Math, you canât simply memorize facts and formulas and expect to advance.</p>
<p>If you got an 800 on an extra SATII, would you send it? AIME qualification implies a certain level of mathematical sophistication far beyond the math SAT. Inasmuch as Harvard cares about mathematical ability, itâs worth sending it. However, I donât think Harvard cares much about that. Obviously, AIME qualification alone means you wonât be on their Putnam team (which they would care about.) And I think their philosophy is that abilities in various fields of work are discrete. That is, high mathematical aptitude (past 800 on the math SAT) wonât make you a better premed. I still think itâs worth sending to Harvard as itâll probably confirm what they already think about you. However, a place like Caltech or an engineering school somewhere else would care a whole lot more. </p>
<p>The philosophy at work seems to be a bastardization of psychologist Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor who espouses that there are many discrete types of intelligence. I say itâs a bastardization because achievement in math probably requires both computational math and verbal ability (to relate disparate concepts.) Yet, when people talk about the different intelligences, they assume that achievement in math only requires the âmath abilityâ Gardner talks about. Conversely, real achievement in math IMO implies a flexibility of the mind that translates to other fields, including business and humanities like anthropology, literature, etc.</p>
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<p>A person who is skilled enough to qualify for AIME would most likely not do poorly on a math section. Additionally, the chance that someone who qualifies for AIME receives a low grade in Algebra are close to none. As collegealum pointed out, qualifying for the AIME is far more difficult than doing well on a math subject test. </p>
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<p>Surely you cannot be implying that a strong ability in the area of mathematics correlates with the same kind of âintelligenceâ in literature or anthropology. Can you elaborate on how you perceive ârealâ achievement in math as a " flexibility of the mind that translates to other fields, including business and humanities like anthropology, literature, etc."?</p>
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<p>Well, first of all, mathematics requires verbal ability. If youâve ever taken abstract algebra, you know what Iâm talking about. Itâs less important for number theory and discrete mathematics. The type of imaginative reasoning demonstrated by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland is good example of the creativity necessary in mathematical thinking and physics. Carroll was a mathematician. </p>
<p>Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who headed the Manhattan Project, believed there was a common way of thinking. Not incidentally, he was very gifted in several areas. </p>
<p>Now, in the Age of AoPS it may be possible to score highly on some of these exams without great creativity. Notwithstanding these exams, I think verbal ability separates the wheat from the chaff in terms of who often becomes the best mathematician.</p>
<p>Send it if:
- You have not made AIME before.
- it is bundled with a few other updates</p>
<p>Otherwise, it would be lame to update colleges and be like âthe only thing I have done in the 2 months since I applied to Harvard is make AIMEâ</p>
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<p>Can someone enlighten me on this? I checked to see what AIME qualification meant â itâs not something that has mattered to my kids â and I was surprised to see that about 10,000 people actually TOOK the AIME last year. I couldnât find an easy source for the number of qualifiers, but from other data it was pretty clear that 10%+ of the qualifiers didnât take the test. (It also seems like the number of people qualified to take the test has increased a lot in the past few years, roughly doubling since 2006.) So the number of AIME qualifiers last year was something higher than 11,000.</p>
<p>At that level, it is roughly comparable to the number of students who get 800 on the math SAT I (about 12,000 last year). I recognize that lots of students take the ACT instead, but then I imagine that the SAT numbers include lots of students â foreigners, people who donât take the AMT â who arenât eligible for AIME qualification, either.</p>
<p>So whatâs the story? Does AIME qualification really mean a lot more than getting an 800 on the math SAT I?</p>
<p>JHS - itâs just a VERY different test. My son got 800 on Math on the SAT I and SAT II Math 2 without blinking an eye, but he is proud that he scored well on the AMC 12A this year.</p>
<p>JHS, keep in mind that the whole AMC/AIME/USAMO/MOP process is to pick a team that will represent the US in IMO. So, I know a bunch of kids who barely qualified for AIME last year (Since the cutoff was very low- 88.5), but they felt they would not perform well on the AIME and rather than risk and get a score of 0, they just left it as âI qualified for AIME.â So, that might be a possible answer to why not all the kids who qualify take the AIME. </p>
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Comparing numbers is completely useless in this case. You canât compare difficulty of tests based on how many kids perform well in each one. Remember, at least in my school, the kids that generally take the AMC are at least in an honors Math class or enrolled in an AP math class, so the students taking the exam are quite familiar with math and have shown some sort of adeptness in the area of mathematics. </p>
<p>So, maybe Iâm missing something here, but would you like to enlighten me why getting an 800 on SAT Math 1 would be more respectable than scoring in the top 5% or scoring above a 100 on the American Mathematics Competition? There are many many people who have done extremely well on SAT Math 1 (750+) who would do poorly on AMC let alone qualify for AIME. However, the majority of the students who qualify to take the AIME would perform extremely well (and many already have) (750+) on the SAT Math 1. </p>
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<p>Keep in mind that number includes underclassmen (and middle schoolers and elementary students). They can qualify through either the AMC 12 or AMC 10, but, for the AMC 10, the levels are definitely higher-you need to score in the top 2.5% to qualify for AIME.</p>
<p>Lastly, you can âprepareâ for the SAT Math section, and it has definitely been proven that it is beatable. However, for the AMC, while you can prepare somewhat, you can never completely plan to do well on it. The type of math they test are just different with SAT Math being a breeze for students who can qualify for AIME but not necessarily the other way around.</p>
<p>EDIT: And no, this is not me complaining about how I couldnât get an 800 on SAT Math 1âŠ</p>
<p>You canât compare AIME and Math SAT I, the two are in different leagues⊠Qualifying for AIME is a very impressive achievement.
Remember, there are only a handful who got perfect scores on AMC (most of whom are USAMOer, IMOer), on the other hand, thousands of kids ace Math SAT I. </p>
<p>Anyway, to answer OPâs question, jst send it if its the 1st time u qualify, otherwise, it wonât make a significant impact on ur app</p>
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<p>Actually, it would be all of whom are USAMOer because the qualifying index, usually, for USAMO is 200 and a score of 150 on the AMC would mean that they would only need 5 questions correct on the AIME, and that is a very easy thing to accomplish for people who got perfect scores on the AMC.</p>
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<p>Yes, it does. Itâs a lot harder test. As for the numbers, a lot of smart people can get one wrong on the math SAT (due to an arithmetic error or something). I knew one guy who was in the top 100 of math students (in terms of placement in the math olympiad tryouts) in the United States who didnât get an 800 on the math SATI. Of course, we teased him a lot for that. Personally, I tend to get 1 or 2 wrong no matter how hard or easy the test is. I got an 800 on math GRE and the SATII math, but I got a couple wrong on the math SATI. (For one question I didnât grid in the decimal point and another was an arithmetic error.) Anyway, you get the idea.</p>
<p>There are roughly the same number of AIME qualifications as SAT math 800s, so they are about equal in achievement.</p>
<p>But while you can send sat scores to the college, aime qualification must be communicated by the student. Furthermore, making it to the aime level is proceeding to a next level of a national competition. Send the update. And congrats on your achievement op.</p>
<p>According to my math major child, who has participated in math competitions in high school and college, AIME qualification is much more impressive than scoring an 800 on SAT math. For kids who are strong math students, it is not a stretch to do some practice tests and get an 800. But not all those kids can do well enough on the AMC to qualify for AIME. As an example, 12 kids in my childâs high school school scored 800 on SAT math; less than half that number qualified for AIME.</p>
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<p>Itâs maybe two or three times more selective than 800 math SAT (or equivalent ACT), in number of US graduates per year who possess the credential. In 2010, the USA had at most 7000 AIME qualifiers in grades 11-12. Thatâs 8144 qualifiers minus the unknown number of grade 10-and-below US students who qualified through AMC12 and the large number of international qualifiers. Based on the hundreds of high AIME scores from Canada, China, Korea, and Singapore it is safe to assume that there were over 1000 foreign qualifiers.</p>
<p>The number of AIME qualifiers was lower in the past, maybe half the 2010 numbers for most of the past decade, hence more meaningful relative to the SAT. </p>
<p>In test content, AIME qualification is much less of a time trial and is less error-sensitive than 800 on the math SAT (I). Relatively few qualifiers answer all questions without guessing, and there arenât so many qualifiers close to the cutoff that an extra point gained or lost is decisive. The score distribution has a longer tail than on the SAT. Consequently, AIME qualification is a more stable and informative measurement of ability than 800 on the SAT, which might be equivalent to a high 770 to a low 850+ (if the latter score range existed). Between that and the more advanced content itâs fair to say that anyone in the know would give AIME as such considerably more weight than a high SAT score.</p>
<p>However, qualifying <em>for the first time</em> in 12th grade, and without scoring a few points on the AIME itself, puts one in the bottom half of this doubly- or triply-selective pool, like getting an 820 instead of an 860 on the hypothetical supraSAT scale.</p>