What are all these crazy acronyms?

Test Preparation
1

<p>What are the AMC/AIME and all these other tests people on here are talking about?</p>

<p>They seem to be very important math/science tests that I’ve never even heard of.</p>

<p>Is it because I live in Iowa?</p>

2

<p>Also, what’s IB?</p>

3

<p><a href=“http://www.unl.edu/amc/[/url]”>http://www.unl.edu/amc/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.ibo.org/[/url]”>500;

4

<p>AMC is the American Math Competition. It’s just a contest basically to see who is really smart in math. The AMC 12 is for highschool juniors and seniors (although i think younger can take it?) and if you score in the top 5%, you get called back to take the AIME which is the American Invitational Math Examination. Then after that, there are two more tests.</p>

<p>and IB i think are like APs. Our school doesnt offer those.</p>

5

<p>Hmm… I participate in this thing called the Great Plains Math League, is that similar, or what?</p>

6

<p>GPML is similar. The difference is that GPML is a local thing, and it’s also more team-oriented. The AMC series is a nationwide contest (or series of them) that has pretty much no team component; it’s all individual competition. It also gets much, much more challenging at higher levels.</p>

<p>The AMC series goes like this:
AMC8 is a contest for junior high students
AMC10 is for 10th grade and below
AMC12 is for 12th grade and below
(you can take more than one of the above three)
AIME (American Invitational Math Exam) is the second round; top-scoring students on the AMC10/12 qualify to take it
USAMO (USA Math Olympiad) is the third round; the top ~500 people in the country qualify based on AMC and AIME scores
MOP (Math Olympiad Summer Program) is a summer camp for the top 60-ish students on the USAMO. 12 of these will be trying out for the national team.
IMO (International Math Olympiad) is like the USAMO, but it’s an international contest. Each country sends 6 students; the US team is selected at MOP.</p>

7

<p>Nice format and explanation Sly…I was just too lazy to lay it out. I dare say that you must be a mathy person.</p>

8

<p>I thought only about 250 qualify for the USAMO based on the combined AMC/AIME scores</p>

9

<p>AMC = American Mathematics Competition
AIME = American Invitational Mathematics Exam
IB = International Baccalaureate
AP = Advanced Placement (Not Associated Press)
SAT = Standard Achievement Test
ACT = American College Test</p>

<p>next time just Google it.</p>

10

<p>If everyone just googled everything, this site wouldn’t exist.</p>

11

<p>Isn’t SAT Scholastic Assessment Test?</p>

12

<p>Different people/books say different things.</p>

<p>I’ve heard:
Scholastic Aptitude Test
Standard Aptitude Test
Scholastic Achievement Test</p>

<p>To name a few.</p>

13

<p>well, sat IIs used to be called the achievement tests…so that’s likely not the A.</p>

<p>i know for a fact, though, that SAT is now just a word, one that doesn’t stand for anything…but i’m pretty sure it used to be schol-aptitude.</p>

14

<p>No the SAT used to be that, now it’s just the SAT I believe.</p>

15

<p><a href=“SAT - Wikipedia”>SAT - Wikipedia;

16

<p>Quite right, hazmat; I’m a mathy person who did all that stuff (well, not MOP or IMO…) in high school. In fact, I still do a lot of it now, but from the other side (coaching, organizing, volunteering, writing, etc.).</p>

<p>iin77, another one you might want to know about is ARML (American Regions Math League). It’s a national tournament for regional teams; you’d fall under the Iowa all-state team. If you want to go, look into how those teams are selected. It’s probably a combination of GPML and AMC/AIME performance.</p>