The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

AMC 10/12: Tests for creative problem solvers

AMC 10/12: Tests for creative problem solvers

Sophomore Alice Cheng first discovered her interest in math in elementary school through her
participation in various math competitions, such as the Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools. When her mom first signed her up for the American Mathematics Competition 8 in middle school, she found it fun to solve the thought-provoking questions on the exam.

The AMC 10 covers the high school math curriculum up to grade 10 while the AMC 12 covers the entire high school math curriculum, excluding calculus. The AMC 10/12 are part of a series of tests that lead up to the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Freshman Serena Yip is taking the AMC 10 this year for the first time upon encouragement from her mom. Yip hopes to learn about new ways of approaching problems by taking the AMC 10, but she is not sure what results to expect out of the test.

“I feel like taking the AMC 10 for the first time will be interesting because I didn’t take the AMC 8 in middl
e school,” Yip said. “By preparing and taking practice tests from previous years, I understand how [the AMC 10] works, which is pretty helpful, so I’m not really feeling nervous or anything.”

Like Yip, junior Rohan Puthukudy, who will be taking the AMC 12 this year, believes that proper practice can help people get an idea of what will be asked on an AMC test.

“[If you are preparing for the AMC, you should] look at old tests so that you can get an idea of what’s being asked on the tests” Puthukudy said. “Then try some of them yourself and look at the solutions to those problems and compare them to your own.”

Cheng agrees, emphasizing that the best way for people to familiarize themselves with AMC problems and the creative thinking necessary to solve them is to do practice problems from previous years’ tests. For Cheng, preparing in this way is not repetitive and boring because the problems on the tests themselves are more interesting and require a deeper level of thinking than the math problems she encounters in school.

“A good thing about these tests is that they exercise your ability to think, your problem solving ability, rather than just memorizing certain formulas and applying them to textbook problems,” Cheng said. “You do need to know certain formulas, but the problems [require you to] apply these formulas in unique ways where you need to think about them for a longer time and it’s not something you can just get immediately.”

About the Contributor
Ria Kolli, Staff Writer
Ria Kolli is a first-year staff writer for El Estoque. She is currently a sophomore.
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