IMSA Applicant Class of 2021

maxo
Sun, 10 Jun 2018 19:30:15 +0000

technically, anyone can be on IMSA’s math team. just show up to the practice/tryout.

what actually matters are the competition tryouts… only a few people make it onto the team for each competition. how many people tryout, and how strong those candidates are for that competition really is based on what competition it is.

for upperclassmen, very few tryout for the NSML competition because most of them just see it as a waste of time, as I said before. however, more upperclassmen, especially the strongest candidates, tryout for the HMMT competition since its actually competitive + hard.

there are always a lot of sophomores trying out, especially in the beginning of the year. the first tryout we had i think there were about ~45 people… this obviously dwindles (last NSML meet only maybe ~15 to 20 tryout) because people get discouraged at just how good other people are

this discouragement is more apparent as your three year career at IMSA progresses. I’d say at least 90% of IMSA students did math team back at their old school, but only 5% end up continuing to do math competitions by junior/senior year. people are naturally inclined to do only things that they are good at, relative to others.