<p>ARML has at least two groups in New York - one in upper NY state and one in the city. There is also a NJ group. It’s a high school league that has open auditions, but the communication channel seems to be strictly through the high schools. I suggest you get in touch with the head of the math department at your local HS and see if he or she has the name of the ARML coordinator for your region.</p>
<p>Tryouts in our city were in February. Our group meets every few weeks through the spring to discuss math and go over the problem sets. The yearly competition is always the first weekend in June. It sounds like something that your child would be preparing for next year.</p>
<p>I’ll check into it. Our HS may not be involved - it’s very small, only about 60 kids/grade. But I’m sure they’ll find out about it for us. The city group would be closest.</p>
<p>Texas137,
I agree that doing math competitions solely in hope of the appeal to colleges is wasted time…for many reasons. There is a subset of students, you know as well as anyone, who are ‘born’ for this kind of thing- of course, being born into the right nest doesn’t hurt!</p>
<p>But, as for the ‘math’ of the situation you describe…again, I think there is a comparison issue. Being at the top 8% of the Math SAT(which is taken by a broad cross section) is not the same as being at the top 8% of the elite math students who take an exam like the AMC-12. Wouldn’t you suppose that most kids scoring a 100 on the AMC12 are scoring much higher than top 8% on their math SAT?? While the tests do not test the same thing by any means, I would think this is the case. That said, I would focus energy on broader measures as well (SAT) if there was a choice to be made- or a perceived need to improve the score.</p>
<p>Nymomof2, P & G Theory is a great course - it presumes Alg II, so don’t be fooled by the description in the course catalog (unless they’ve changed it by now)</p>
<p>Thanks, Yulsie. I saw your earlier post on this issue, and told my son. He’ll do EPGY Algebra II before he goes. The catalog has not been changed, so we really appreciate the information.</p>
<p>robyrm - you’re absolutely correct about the comparison issue. I started thinking about that after it was too late to edit and wishing I had left out that last part. </p>
<p>I have never seen any attempt to equate AMC 12 scores with SAT math scores. But just from my own little group, by the time my kids have been able to break 100 on the AMC 12, their SAT math scores have been a lot higher than 650-699. [Hey, it’s only the kids who are good at math (or statistics)! I just bumble along sharpening pencils for them. ;)]</p>
<p>My D told me today that the AMC12 was scored wrong and her real score is 10 points higher than she was previously told. And three more kids from her school now get to take the AIME. What a difference a day makes . . .</p>
<p>To back way up to the original topic, to qualify to take the AIME you need to get a score of 120 on the AMC10 and a 100 on the AMC12. This represents 5%-10% of the original test takers. Because these students are often self selected as more math oriented I would expect these students would be in the top 2%-5% of overall high school students.</p>