<p>I’m guessing it’s more of an informal process by which teams are chosen.</p>
<p>There’s also a huge gap between AIME, USAMO, and the Putnam. Only the best mathematicians are chosen to take the Putnam and represent a certain college, and the median score is usually 0 or 1 (out of a possible score of 120).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex.shtml[/url]”>http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex.shtml</a></p>
<p>It’s not ‘general mathematics’ like the AIME either. You’ll be expected to know a lot of probability theory, number theory, and most importantly, calculus, which isn’t utilized in high school tests.</p>
<p>There can be more than one team for a particular college, however. For example, in the past few years, MIT hasn’t won because it’s picked people for the wrong teams. That is, the really strong people have been spread out over 2 or more teams rather than being on 1 team. Thus, even if you don’t qualify for the “#1 team at UChicago”, you can take the test no matter what, on a lesser team or individually.</p>