The American Mathematics Competitions, a series of contests for U.S. middle and high school
students. The AMC 8, AMC 10, and AMC 12 contests are multiple-choice tests, which are taken by over
400,000 students every year. Top scorers on the AMC 10 and AMC 12 are invited to take the
American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), which is a more difficult, short-answer
contest. Approximately 10,000 students every year participate in the AIME. Then, based on the
results of the AMC and AIME contests, about 500 students are invited to participate in the USA
Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), a 2-day, 9-hour examination in which each student must show all
of his or her work. Results from the USAMO are used to invite a number of students to the Math
Olympiad Summer Program, at which the U.S. team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)
is chosen. More information about the AMC contests can be found on the AMC website at www. unl.
edu/amc.
MATHCOUNTS®, the premier contest for U.S. middle school students. MATHCOUNTS is a national
enrichment, coaching, and competition program that promotes middle school mathe matics
achievement through grassroots involvement in every U.S. state and territory. President George
W. Bush and former Presidents Clinton, Bush and Reagan have all recognized MATH COUNTS in
White House ceremonies. The MATHCOUNTS program has also received two White House citations as
an outstanding private sector initiative. More information is available at
www.mathcounts.org.
The Mandelbrot Competition, which was founded in 1990 by Sandor Lehoczky, Richard Rusczyk, and
Sam Vandervelde. The aim of the Mandelbrot Competition is to provide a challenging, engaging
mathematical experience that is both competitive and educational. Students compete both as
individuals and in teams. The Mandelbrot Competition is offered at the national level for more
advanced students and the regional level for less experienced problem solvers. More
information can be found at www. mandelbrot. org.
The Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament, which is an annual math tournament for high school
students, held at MIT and at Harvard in alternating years. It is run exclusively by MIT and Harvard
students, most of whom themselves participated in math contests in high school. More information
is available at web. mit. edu/hmmt/.
