<p>Im a sophomore who never took the amc but am going to take it soon, i dont know what to expect and wondering should i study for it or just go in with no prep to see where i am and decide to study the next year if i have any talent? What were your experiences?</p>
<p>A combination of both really. Performing at a high level math is not for everyone. It takes a brilliant mind to get to USAMO and beyond. On the other hand, most who do so did A LOT of extra studying, some of whom are very intense, at times >5 hrs a day to >10 hrs a day. This is why math competition is the hardest of all. Study hard is not a sole component to success: it also takes innate talent.</p>
<p>No one does 10hrs+
I know about 50% of the Winners and quite a few MOPpers from camp. It is all about how well they devote their time to studying. Kids who are really behind, as in not AIME qual their soph yr to USAMO HM their sr year, study about 5hrs a day. Most of the winners spend about 2 to 3 hrs a day for about 2 to 3 yrs.
It is more about work than natural ability. I went from not knowing about the AIME to USAJMO qualifier in one year; considering no one had ever made it to the Olympiad round in a 50 mile radius from where I live, it was all hard work that took me there.
Natural ability plays a small role; you should be one of the best kids in your school in math, otherwise you won’t do anything. But beyond that level, you just need to work hard.</p>
<p>I think you are asking the wrong questions.</p>
<p>Your AMC score will not tell you if you have any talent.
It will just tell you where you are right now.</p>
<p>Do you love math? Do you read about it on the side? Do you subscribe to any math-related magazines, or go to the local library to read/borrow math books? Do you enjoy logic puzzles?
Is there a Math Circle near you, and if so, are you a member?
If you like math-related topics, then you have the basis for pursuing math.</p>
<p>Take a look at one of the old AMC tests. You can purchase tests fairly inexpensively, or your teacher may have old exams. This will give you an idea of the type of questions that are asked. It’s valuable to have some idea of the level of questions to expect.</p>
<p>Also, you can “work your way up” by starting with MathCounts questions (for middle schoolers), then going to the AMC10 questions, then AMC12, then AIME . . . The math talent search questions (USAMTS or USMTS, I forget which) are also good for developing your skills. They are different in the sense that you have an entire month to solve the questions, in each round!</p>
<p>Have other students at your school qualified for the USAMO? If so, then your odds are better. The Mathematical Association of America has recently offered a workshop for high school teachers, to help their students make the jump from AIME qualification to USAMO qualification. Analysts at the MAA noticed that the USAMO qualifiers tended to be more concentrated in certain schools than the likely concentration of talent made plausible. This was not true at AIME-level (the next step after AMC). In other words, a student who enjoyed mathematics and was good at it could generally reach the AIME without any special preparation or assistance. However, if your teachers are unable to handle the AIME questions, you are unlikely to be exposed to the level of problem-solving that will help you to prepare, without explicitly “studying” for the tests.</p>
<p>Of course, this does not mean that anyone who goes to a school with previous USAMO qualifiers has an “easy route” to the USAMO. It does take a developed level of mathematical understanding and strong problem-solving skills. Also, there is always a chance for someone to be the first qualifier from his/her school. This would tend to indicate considerable mathematical promise.</p>
<p>well out of a school of 1,000 the only person who got passed the amc was one kid who failed all his classes but was supposed to be really good at math… I go to a good highschool in L.A were like 6x or 7x aca deca champions… But i have a really busy schedule adjusting to ap’s and picking up on my ec’s so i wont be able to study unless i drop something…so basically</p>
<p>does a test exist where i can take it to test my own math ability to see if i have any talent to decide if i should study or not?</p>
<p>thanks for all the feedback!!!</p>
<p>“No one does 10hrs+”
I’m sorry. This may not be the case in U.S. but this is the norm in other nations, especially for high caliber students preping for entrance to IMO team and beyond. The work ethic is a world away compared to U.S. standard.
I’m sorry if this doesn’t apply to U.S. students going for USAMO, but I’m simply telling the story from my perspective, that is, regarding those who pursue higher level math in my nation.</p>
<p>
You mean your nation. Or your community, anyway. I don’t think anyone on here can make generalizations about how much top students in the world/country study. I’ve met top students who study as much as humanly possible with some small amount of sleep, and who get great grades, and others who just study moderately and get excellent grades as well [doesn’t say anything about the top in my country though]. Saying that intelligence doesn’t count in qualifying for top-level math competitions is insane. Studying factors in, but as equally as, if not less than, intelligence.
Generally, you need both. I’ve never met or heard of someone who is capable of solving anything without putting some effort in knowledge [i.e., working for it] beforehand. Except a few metahumane geniuses, but I’m not counting those. One without the other is somewhat crippling. Everyone needs some amount of work - it just differs between one and another based on their smarts.</p>
<p>^ Of course I totally agree.</p>
<p>I don’t want to claim that innate ability has nothing to do with qualifying, but there is an extremely high correlation between USAMO and studying time.</p>
<p>Time spent studying for Olympiads (indeed, the integration of Olympiads into curriculum itself) depends very much between countries and cultures. I know American MOPers who studies AoPS a bit. I know a Turkish IMO double-gold winner who literally did nothing in high school but train, on his own, for the Olympiads (math and physics). Everyone is on a spectrum.</p>
<p>There are also plenty of extremely talented math students who don’t care for competition math, either. They pursue their math interests in other ways (Physics or Comp Sci Olympiads, self-directed research, etc.).</p>
<p>We know several MOP and IMO folks, and they did not spend time studying for the contests. They were generally working at a very advanced level early on and had mentors at the flagship down the road early in their HS careers.</p>
<p>Some school programs offer coursework that is so far beyond a regular HS curriculum that it makes the USXXXO exams pretty easy. The teachers give the AIME/USAPHO/USACO qualifying exams/competitions to everyone in the class as an (ungraded) assessment.</p>
<p>Well, it is very obvious you need to have both; talent and hard work.</p>
<p>In a contest, say that we have 4 problems. If you’ve worked hard before, you’ve probably solved problems that are similar with 3 of the problems in the actual contest, and you manage to solve them remembering problems that you have solved before. However, most likely there will be at least a problem that you have never something like that (note that Olympiad problems are supposed to be very original, though still in some countries they just get them from past papers of other countries…), and that means that you have to be talented to solve that problem. </p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is that, being either hard worker or smart can help you to achieve great success, but you can never be the best.</p>
<p>Let’s keep in mind that we sleep for 8 hours a day, and attend school another 8. Therefore people cannot do 10+ hours a day of math in this country, as was mentioned earlier in this thread.</p>
<p>During schooldays 1-2 is an ideal, but not one that is always possible.</p>
<p>What WLsilver said is correct, although I think that even in US they do more than 1-2 hours per day.</p>
<p>Note that in some countries, kids of the IMO team are students in mathematical high schools. Hence even those hours that they spend in school, are used for Olympiad training.</p>