Math competition qualifiers advance to the next round

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Andrew Wu

Sophomore Rockwell Li prepares for the AIME with practice problems on January 23, 2023.

Two students move to the second round of a national mathematics competition: sophomore Rockwell Li and junior Austin Mao.

Twenty-nine participants competed in the AMC (American Mathematics Competition), held on November 2022. The AMC 10/12 includes 25 problems that challenge students to use mathematical problem-solving skills within 75 minutes. Each correct answer earns six points, questions left blank receive one and a half points and every incorrectly answered problem grants zero points. All students were eligible to take part in the AMC 12, but only freshmen and sophomores were permitted to participate in the AMC 10.

“Going into the test, I was overconfident and didn’t expect this year’s test to be that hard,” said sophomore Rockwell Li..

Each year, a threshold is proclaimed by the Mathematical Association of America for the second round, known as the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Exam). This year, the threshold was set to 93 points for the AMC 10 and 85.5 points for the AMC 12. The AIME will be held on an established day, administered by Jennifer Blackmore.

“The AIME questions are harder and take way more time to solve. I wish good luck to everybody who made it,” said Rockwell.