Happy Memorial Day! Please note that AoPS Online is closed May 24-26th.

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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
May 1, 2025
May is an exciting month! National MATHCOUNTS is the second week of May in Washington D.C. and our Founder, Richard Rusczyk will be presenting a seminar, Preparing Strong Math Students for College and Careers, on May 11th.

Are you interested in working towards MATHCOUNTS and don’t know where to start? We have you covered! If you have taken Prealgebra, then you are ready for MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics. Already aiming for State or National MATHCOUNTS and harder AMC 8 problems? Then our MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Advanced course is for you.

Summer camps are starting next month at the Virtual Campus in math and language arts that are 2 - to 4 - weeks in duration. Spaces are still available - don’t miss your chance to have an enriching summer experience. There are middle and high school competition math camps as well as Math Beasts camps that review key topics coupled with fun explorations covering areas such as graph theory (Math Beasts Camp 6), cryptography (Math Beasts Camp 7-8), and topology (Math Beasts Camp 8-9)!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
[list][*]May 9th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, Casework 2: Overwhelming Evidence — A Text Adventure, a game where participants will work together to navigate the map, solve puzzles, and win! All are welcome.
[*]May 19th, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, What's Next After Beast Academy?, designed for students finishing Beast Academy and ready for Prealgebra 1.
[*]May 20th, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 1 Math Jam, Problems 1 to 4, join the Canada/USA Mathcamp staff for this exciting Math Jam, where they discuss solutions to Problems 1 to 4 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz!
[*]May 21st, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 2 Math Jam, Problems 5 and 6, Canada/USA Mathcamp staff will discuss solutions to Problems 5 and 6 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz![/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

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Introduction to Counting & Probability Self-Paced

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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 2025
0 replies
9 Favorite topic
A7456321   9
N 4 minutes ago by MathRook7817
What is your favorite math topic/subject?

If you don't know why you are here, go binge watch something!

If you forgot why you are here, go to a hospital! :)

If you know why you are here and have voted, maybe say why you picked the option that you picked in a response) :thumbup:

Timeline

Oh yeah and you see that little thumb in the top right corner? The one that upvotes when you press it? Yeah. Press it. Thaaaaaaaanks! :D
9 replies
A7456321
Yesterday at 11:53 PM
MathRook7817
4 minutes ago
9 How many squares do you have memorized
LXC007   99
N 35 minutes ago by vincentwant
How many squares have you memorized. I have 1-20

Edit: to clarify i mean positive squares from 1 so if you say ten you mean you memorized the squares 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10
99 replies
LXC007
May 17, 2025
vincentwant
35 minutes ago
2025 Mathcounts Nationals Journal
Andyluo   58
N 44 minutes ago by ForeverSnow
Friday May 9th

I spent my evening after school, packing for the trip, using the checklist given by my coach.
I didn’t do much preparation, as I was mostly chilling out for the upcoming days.

I also played basketball with my cousin, Kevin, who met Gotham Chess and stayed at his home!


Saturday, May 10th

I woke up at 5:30 AM, ate a light breakfast, and headed out to the airport with my luggage.

I met my teacher, but was surprised that Archishman split up with his own family.
Waiting for the TSA was pretty boring, but we soon got through, and after I found our gate.

A couple of minutes pass by, as I review an AOPS mock where I meet Archischman;
Afterward, we chill out, watch the rube goldberg machine in the airport, and wait to board the plane.

During the plane ride, I played games; however, during our descent, I heard a loud crack, and our plane started wobbling, and we heard cracking sounds in the seats. Fortunately, we were able to land and were able to attend the competition the next day.

After this, heading out, we went to the shuttle; however, we had 35 minutes. We tried to solve the Jane Street card puzzle but failed, and ended up socializing.

After we arrived at the hotel, we received a MASSIVE amount of stuff, like calculators, shirts, coupons, plaques, stickers, etc.
I also saw and got a signature from Richard Rusczyk, which was really cool.

Then, we went to a restaurant named “Chinatown Garden”, with the worst food I’ve ever had.

We then chilled in our rooms, studied for a bit, and started organizing plans for pin trading.

Our goal was to scam as many people as possible by doing 2:1 trades, as we had a “limited”
amount of pins. (We even got 5:1 and 10:1 trades)
A Virginia kid scammed me with a STEM pin, so I chased him down and got our pin back.

We got through around half the states organizing in and out of what pins we had.

Finally, we got some food from the buffet (which was surprisingly decent) and had a good time trading some more.

We ended the day with a short and brief CDR, where we had some fun, and then we went to sleep to anticipate the next day.

At night, I showered and sang karaoke with Archi.

Sunday, May 11th

Getting ready, I found out that a mock (outside the box) was recently released and took it through breakfast.

Then, once we got there at 8:30, there was a mob of parents taking pictures, and music played.

Then every team did introductions/attendance and their chants, most of which were really cringe.

I took the test; however was too slow on the sprint round and got a predicted 16.

On the target round, I was able to get through and got a 12, despite barely not solving p8 to my frustration.

Team round we did decently, scoring a 14/20, which was one of the best scores around us, that even orz states like Texas and Washington didn’t beat.

I predicted around a 28 with the answer key.

After this, we teamed up with North Carolina (chill af) and went to a pho shop (54 Restaurant), which tasted amazing. (A far contrast from Chinatown Garden)

Then, we went to an aerospace museum, where we played Brawl Stars and went around. Eventually, we saw models of blackholes and air vacuums, and played a flight simulator.

Then we went to our hotel, chilled, and watched basketball games.

After, we went to an Indian restaurant named “Himilayan Doko” which was really delicious!

Then we raided different rooms, from NC, HAWAII, Idaho, Virgin Islands, and accidentally a random dudes room who was ticked at us.

Finally, we chilled and went to sleep, though I tried to get Henry and Archi to sleep since they were being annoying.

Monday, May 12th

We start the day forming my pin badge, and then we went to get some breakfast.

After that, we met in the breakfast area with 2 teams for table, and I actually got a 10:1 pin trade which was pretty cool.

After that, we lined up and got our thunderstick/clapping machines, and ran through the entrance of the CDR.

Sadly, we didn’t win anything, but it was cool seeing the results.

Then, we started to watch the CDR, which was really exciting.
It got really interesting when everyone saw Nathan Liu cook his opponent in half a second.

In the semifinals, it was insane, and Advait and Nathan, buzzed every question that was around mid-sprint level.

Then, it finished with Nathan beating Brandon with a 2-second solve, absolute insanity.

Finally, we went back to our rooms and got lunch in the hotel.
A few hours later, we received our scores, and I had bombed, scoring a 26 with 7 sillies. (ouch)

Unfortunately, my teammates Henry and Archishman sillied a bunch of questions.

After, we played Brawl Stars, and went to explore the hotel, where we went up a random staircase and got stuck. We went to the roof, but got scared and yelled out for help on the gym floor. Thankfully, we got back, and I went and reviewed the test.

After we reviewed the test, and went to the Mathcounts Party.

The food was mid, but the games were pretty fun.

We met a bunch of people, played air hockey, foosball, and basketball, while listening to the not so great music in the background.

Then we went back to our rooms at 8PM, to put our pins on, and I got 38/56!

Finally, we met up in a room with a bunch of Cali, and NC kids, and talked about the test, the people, and played Brawl Stars. Even Josh Frost came up to us and asked us how the trip was.

Tuesday, May 13th

I started the day waking up at 6:20, and packed up and ate breakfast. After that, Henry was late, so we packed food for him and went to the bus shuttle.

Eventually, we arrived at the airport, went through security (which was suspiciously fast), and played Brawl Stars. We also ate five guys fries, which was pretty good. Eventually, we had to part our ways with Henry and headed out to our flights, which marked the end of the trip.

Conclusion:

Although we didn’t do amazingly well in the contest, going to DC was an amazing experience. I got to meet people who were passionate about math, and hang out with them, goofing around.

This was the best math contest experience that I’ll likely ever have, and I’m glad I went through it.
58 replies
Andyluo
May 13, 2025
ForeverSnow
44 minutes ago
The daily problem!
Leeoz   198
N an hour ago by ForeverSnow
Every day, I will try to post a new problem for you all to solve! If you want to post a daily problem, you can! :)

Please hide solutions and answers, hints are fine though! :)

Problems usually get harder throughout the week, so Sunday is the easiest and Saturday is the hardest!

Past Problems!
198 replies
1 viewing
Leeoz
Mar 21, 2025
ForeverSnow
an hour ago
No more topics!
Alcumus specs
YeohZY   5
N Apr 29, 2025 by PikaPika999
Hi, can I ask about how Alcumus gives you points? (I mean the number on the red/orange/green/blue line on top that gains once you get correct answers. I'll just call it the score). I want to get my score up to 100, but I always can't and get stuck at like 98 or sth. Why is this so, and also how does alcumus make that "score" higher?
5 replies
YeohZY
Apr 27, 2025
PikaPika999
Apr 29, 2025
Alcumus specs
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G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
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YeohZY
6 posts
#1 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
Hi, can I ask about how Alcumus gives you points? (I mean the number on the red/orange/green/blue line on top that gains once you get correct answers. I'll just call it the score). I want to get my score up to 100, but I always can't and get stuck at like 98 or sth. Why is this so, and also how does alcumus make that "score" higher?
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by YeohZY, Apr 28, 2025, 8:16 AM
Reason: originally the post was incredibly unclear
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aidan0626
1929 posts
#2 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
what do you mean by points?
rating gain slows down as your rating gets higher, and solving easy problems doesn't make your rating go up as much
also if you're doing prealg your rating legit goes up 10x slower than like any other subject
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PikaPika999
2285 posts
#3
Y by
YeohZY wrote:
Hi, can I ask about how Alcumus gives you points? Many times I do a lot of questions and it doesn't give me any points. I just wanted to ask this because it keeps bugging me.

If the "points" are rating, then quick question: "Which topic are you doing?" Because if the topic is Prealgebra, then yeah. That makes sense. Getting 10 questions right in prealgebra brings your rating up by like 0.1 and then getting one wrong brings it down by 50. :skull:
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NovaFrost
21 posts
#5 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
lol fr that's actually true
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Unicode_Master03B8
264 posts
#6 • 1 Y
Y by PikaPika999
/req move to Alcumus forum

I think they are referring to the bar in the top right that appears while playing Alcumus. If you want to get this bar to 100, you have to do a lot of problems in the same focus.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Unicode_Master03B8, Apr 29, 2025, 3:54 PM
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PikaPika999
2285 posts
#7
Y by
Unicode_Master03B8 wrote:
/req move to Alcumus forum

I think they are referring to the bar in the top right that appears while playing Alcumus. If you want to get this bar to 100, you have to do a lot of problems in the same focus.

took me 1500 correct questions to get reciprocals to 100 :P
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