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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Yesterday at 11:16 PM
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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Relativity
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0 replies
jlacosta
Yesterday at 11:16 PM
0 replies
k i Peer-to-Peer Programs Forum
jwelsh   157
N Dec 11, 2023 by cw357
Many of our AoPS Community members share their knowledge with their peers in a variety of ways, ranging from creating mock contests to creating real contests to writing handouts to hosting sessions as part of our partnership with schoolhouse.world.

To facilitate students in these efforts, we have created a new Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. With the creation of this forum, we are starting a new process for those of you who want to advertise your efforts. These advertisements and ensuing discussions have been cluttering up some of the forums that were meant for other purposes, so we’re gathering these topics in one place. This also allows students to find new peer-to-peer learning opportunities without having to poke around all the other forums.

To announce your program, or to invite others to work with you on it, here’s what to do:

1) Post a new topic in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. This will be the discussion thread for your program.

2) Post a single brief post in this thread that links the discussion thread of your program in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Please note that we’ll move or delete any future advertisement posts that are outside the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, as well as any posts in this topic that are not brief announcements of new opportunities. In particular, this topic should not be used to discuss specific programs; those discussions should occur in topics in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Your post in this thread should have what you're sharing (class, session, tutoring, handout, math or coding game/other program) and a link to the thread in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, which should have more information (like where to find what you're sharing).
157 replies
jwelsh
Mar 15, 2021
cw357
Dec 11, 2023
k i C&P posting recs by mods
v_Enhance   0
Jun 12, 2020
The purpose of this post is to lay out a few suggestions about what kind of posts work well for the C&P forum. Except in a few cases these are mostly meant to be "suggestions based on historical trends" rather than firm hard rules; we may eventually replace this with an actual list of firm rules but that requires admin approval :) That said, if you post something in the "discouraged" category, you should not be totally surprised if it gets locked; they are discouraged exactly because past experience shows they tend to go badly.
-----------------------------
1. Program discussion: Allowed
If you have questions about specific camps or programs (e.g. which classes are good at X camp?), these questions fit well here. Many camps/programs have specific sub-forums too but we understand a lot of them are not active.
-----------------------------
2. Results discussion: Allowed
You can make threads about e.g. how you did on contests (including AMC), though on AMC day when there is a lot of discussion. Moderators and administrators may do a lot of thread-merging / forum-wrangling to keep things in one place.
-----------------------------
3. Reposting solutions or questions to past AMC/AIME/USAMO problems: Allowed
This forum contains a post for nearly every problem from AMC8, AMC10, AMC12, AIME, USAJMO, USAMO (and these links give you an index of all these posts). It is always permitted to post a full solution to any problem in its own thread (linked above), regardless of how old the problem is, and even if this solution is similar to one that has already been posted. We encourage this type of posting because it is helpful for the user to explain their solution in full to an audience, and for future users who want to see multiple approaches to a problem or even just the frequency distribution of common approaches. We do ask for some explanation; if you just post "the answer is (B); ez" then you are not adding anything useful.

You are also encouraged to post questions about a specific problem in the specific thread for that problem, or about previous user's solutions. It's almost always better to use the existing thread than to start a new one, to keep all the discussion in one place easily searchable for future visitors.
-----------------------------
4. Advice posts: Allowed, but read below first
You can use this forum to ask for advice about how to prepare for math competitions in general. But you should be aware that this question has been asked many many times. Before making a post, you are encouraged to look at the following:
[list]
[*] Stop looking for the right training: A generic post about advice that keeps getting stickied :)
[*] There is an enormous list of links on the Wiki of books / problems / etc for all levels.
[/list]
When you do post, we really encourage you to be as specific as possible in your question. Tell us about your background, what you've tried already, etc.

Actually, the absolute best way to get a helpful response is to take a few examples of problems that you tried to solve but couldn't, and explain what you tried on them / why you couldn't solve them. Here is a great example of a specific question.
-----------------------------
5. Publicity: use P2P forum instead
See https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2489297_peertopeer_programs_forum.
Some exceptions have been allowed in the past, but these require approval from administrators. (I am not totally sure what the criteria is. I am not an administrator.)
-----------------------------
6. Mock contests: use Mock Contests forum instead
Mock contests should be posted in the dedicated forum instead:
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c594864_aops_mock_contests
-----------------------------
7. AMC procedural questions: suggest to contact the AMC HQ instead
If you have a question like "how do I submit a change of venue form for the AIME" or "why is my name not on the qualifiers list even though I have a 300 index", you would be better off calling or emailing the AMC program to ask, they are the ones who can help you :)
-----------------------------
8. Discussion of random math problems: suggest to use MSM/HSM/HSO instead
If you are discussing a specific math problem that isn't from the AMC/AIME/USAMO, it's better to post these in Middle School Math, High School Math, High School Olympiads instead.
-----------------------------
9. Politics: suggest to use Round Table instead
There are important conversations to be had about things like gender diversity in math contests, etc., for sure. However, from experience we think that C&P is historically not a good place to have these conversations, as they go off the rails very quickly. We encourage you to use the Round Table instead, where it is much more clear that all posts need to be serious.
-----------------------------
10. MAA complaints: discouraged
We don't want to pretend that the MAA is perfect or that we agree with everything they do. However, we chose to discourage this sort of behavior because in practice most of the comments we see are not useful and some are frankly offensive.
[list] [*] If you just want to blow off steam, do it on your blog instead.
[*] When you have criticism, it should be reasoned, well-thought and constructive. What we mean by this is, for example, when the AOIME was announced, there was great outrage about potential cheating. Well, do you really think that this is something the organizers didn't think about too? Simply posting that "people will cheat and steal my USAMOO qualification, the MAA are idiots!" is not helpful as it is not bringing any new information to the table.
[*] Even if you do have reasoned, well-thought, constructive criticism, we think it is actually better to email it the MAA instead, rather than post it here. Experience shows that even polite, well-meaning suggestions posted in C&P are often derailed by less mature users who insist on complaining about everything.
[/list]
-----------------------------
11. Memes and joke posts: discouraged
It's fine to make jokes or lighthearted posts every so often. But it should be done with discretion. Ideally, jokes should be done within a longer post that has other content. For example, in my response to one user's question about olympiad combinatorics, I used a silly picture of Sogiita Gunha, but it was done within a context of a much longer post where it was meant to actually make a point.

On the other hand, there are many threads which consist largely of posts whose only content is an attached meme with the word "MAA" in it. When done in excess like this, the jokes reflect poorly on the community, so we explicitly discourage them.
-----------------------------
12. Questions that no one can answer: discouraged
Examples of this: "will MIT ask for AOIME scores?", "what will the AIME 2021 cutoffs be (asked in 2020)", etc. Basically, if you ask a question on this forum, it's better if the question is something that a user can plausibly answer :)
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13. Blind speculation: discouraged
Along these lines, if you do see a question that you don't have an answer to, we discourage "blindly guessing" as it leads to spreading of baseless rumors. For example, if you see some user posting "why are there fewer qualifiers than usual this year?", you should not reply "the MAA must have been worried about online cheating so they took fewer people!!". Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
-----------------------------
14. Discussion of cheating: strongly discouraged
If you have evidence or reasonable suspicion of cheating, please report this to your Competition Manager or to the AMC HQ; these forums cannot help you.
Otherwise, please avoid public discussion of cheating. That is: no discussion of methods of cheating, no speculation about how cheating affects cutoffs, and so on --- it is not helpful to anyone, and it creates a sour atmosphere. A longer explanation is given in Seriously, please stop discussing how to cheat.
-----------------------------
15. Cutoff jokes: never allowed
Whenever the cutoffs for any major contest are released, it is very obvious when they are official. In the past, this has been achieved by the numbers being posted on the official AMC website (here) or through a post from the AMCDirector account.

You must never post fake cutoffs, even as a joke. You should also refrain from posting cutoffs that you've heard of via email, etc., because it is better to wait for the obvious official announcement. A longer explanation is given in A Treatise on Cutoff Trolling.
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16. Meanness: never allowed
Being mean is worse than being immature and unproductive. If another user does something which you think is inappropriate, use the Report button to bring the post to moderator attention, or if you really must reply, do so in a way that is tactful and constructive rather than inflammatory.
-----------------------------

Finally, we remind you all to sit back and enjoy the problems. :D

-----------------------------
(EDIT 2024-09-13: AoPS has asked to me to add the following item.)

Advertising paid program or service: never allowed

Per the AoPS Terms of Service (rule 5h), general advertisements are not allowed.

While we do allow advertisements of official contests (at the MAA and MATHCOUNTS level) and those run by college students with at least one successful year, any and all advertisements of a paid service or program is not allowed and will be deleted.
0 replies
v_Enhance
Jun 12, 2020
0 replies
k i Stop looking for the "right" training
v_Enhance   50
N Oct 16, 2017 by blawho12
Source: Contest advice
EDIT 2019-02-01: https://blog.evanchen.cc/2019/01/31/math-contest-platitudes-v3/ is the updated version of this.

EDIT 2021-06-09: see also https://web.evanchen.cc/faq-contest.html.

Original 2013 post
50 replies
v_Enhance
Feb 15, 2013
blawho12
Oct 16, 2017
2025 CMIMC team p7, rephrased
scannose   9
N 33 minutes ago by Mathdreams
In the expansion of $(x^2 + x + 1)^{2024}$, find the number of terms with coefficient divisible by $3$.
9 replies
scannose
Apr 18, 2025
Mathdreams
33 minutes ago
Values of x
Ecrin_eren   0
an hour ago
Given 0 ≤ x < 2π, what is the difference between the largest and the smallest of the values of x
that satisfy the equation 5cosx + 2sin2x = 4 in radians?
0 replies
Ecrin_eren
an hour ago
0 replies
Maximum value
Ecrin_eren   3
N an hour ago by Royal_mhyasd
a,b,c are positive real numbers such that
(a+b)^2 (a+c)^2=16abc
What is the maximum value of a+b+c
3 replies
Ecrin_eren
Today at 1:30 PM
Royal_mhyasd
an hour ago
Floor and exact value
Ecrin_eren   1
N an hour ago by Soupboy0
The exact value of a real number a is denoted by [a] and
the fractional value {a}.
For example; [3.7]= 3 and {3, 7} = 0.7
For a positive real number x,
Given the equality of [x]{x} = 2023, what can
[X^2]-[x]^2 be?
1 reply
Ecrin_eren
2 hours ago
Soupboy0
an hour ago
Question about AMC 10
MathNerdRabbit103   8
N 4 hours ago by MathNerdRabbit103
Hi,

Can anybody predict a good score that I can get on the AMC 10 this November by only being good at counting and probability, number theory, and algebra? I know some geometry because I took it in school though, but it isn’t competition math so it probably doesn’t count.

Thanks.
8 replies
MathNerdRabbit103
Today at 2:53 AM
MathNerdRabbit103
4 hours ago
SMT Online 2025 Certificates/Question Paper/Grading
techb   10
N 5 hours ago by techb
It is May 1st. I have been anticipating the arrival of my results displayed in the awards ceremony in the form of a digital certificate. I have unfortunately not received anything. I have heard from other sources(AoPS, and the internet), that the certificates generally arrive at the end of the month. I would like to ask the organizers, or the coordinators of the tournament, to at least give us an ETA. I would like to further elaborate on the expedition of the release of the Question Papers and the grading. The question papers would be very helpful to the people who have taken the contest, and also to other people who would like to solve them. It would also help, as people can discuss the problems that were given in the test, and know different strategies to solve a problem they have solved. In regards to the grading, it would be a crucial piece of evidence to dispute the score shown in the awards ceremony, in case the contestant is not satisfied.
10 replies
techb
Yesterday at 7:21 PM
techb
5 hours ago
How many people get waitlisted st promys?
dragoon   34
N 6 hours ago by dragoon
Asking for a friend here
34 replies
dragoon
Apr 18, 2025
dragoon
6 hours ago
June contests?
abbominable_sn0wman   4
N Today at 3:57 AM by Sid-darth-vater
are there any good/fun math contests in june? obviously arml, but anything else?
4 replies
abbominable_sn0wman
Today at 1:46 AM
Sid-darth-vater
Today at 3:57 AM
Math Kangaroo 2025 Thread
FuturePanda   0
Today at 3:34 AM
Are we allowed to discuss scores and problems yet? If so, we can start here.
0 replies
FuturePanda
Today at 3:34 AM
0 replies
Gardens of Rectangular Grids
djmathman   69
N Today at 2:08 AM by lpieleanu
Source: 2013 USAJMO Problem 2
Each cell of an $m\times n$ board is filled with some nonnegative integer. Two numbers in the filling are said to be adjacent if their cells share a common side. (Note that two numbers in cells that share only a corner are not adjacent). The filling is called a garden if it satisfies the following two conditions:

(i) The difference between any two adjacent numbers is either $0$ or $1$.
(ii) If a number is less than or equal to all of its adjacent numbers, then it is equal to $0$.

Determine the number of distinct gardens in terms of $m$ and $n$.
69 replies
djmathman
Apr 30, 2013
lpieleanu
Today at 2:08 AM
ranttttt
alcumusftwgrind   32
N Today at 12:43 AM by Alex-131
rant
32 replies
alcumusftwgrind
Wednesday at 11:04 PM
Alex-131
Today at 12:43 AM
Berkeley mini Math Tournament Online 2025 - June 7
BerkeleyMathTournament   2
N Today at 12:37 AM by paixiao
Berkeley mini Math Tournament is a math competition hosted for middle school students once a year. Students compete in multiple rounds: individual round, team round, puzzle round, and relay round.

BmMT 2025 Online will be held on June 7th, and registration is OPEN! Registration is $8 per student. Our website https://berkeley.mt/events/bmmt-2025-online/ has more details about the event, past tests to practice with, and frequently asked questions. We look forward to building community and inspiring students as they explore the world of math!

3 out of 4 of the rounds are completed with a team, so it’s a great opportunity for students to work together. Beyond getting more comfortable with math and becoming better problem solvers, our team is preparing some fun post-competition activities!

Registration is open to students in grades 8 or below. You do not have to be local to the Bay Area or California to register for BmMT Online. Students may register as a team of 1, but it is beneficial to compete on a team of at least 3 due to our scoring guideline and for the experience.

We hope you consider attending, or if you are a parent or teacher, that you encourage your students to think about attending BmMT. Thank you, and once again find more details/register at our website,https://berkeley.mt.
2 replies
BerkeleyMathTournament
Yesterday at 7:38 AM
paixiao
Today at 12:37 AM
Reuse essay for summer program application?
quavante   3
N Yesterday at 10:59 PM by Rong0625
For summer math programs such as Mathcamp, Ross, SUMaC, etc., if you got rejected the first time, would you change your essay for the second application or reuse it?
3 replies
quavante
Wednesday at 11:38 PM
Rong0625
Yesterday at 10:59 PM
Too Bad I'm Lactose Intolerant
hwl0304   218
N Yesterday at 9:41 PM by Maximilian113
Source: 2018 USAMO Problem 1/USAJMO Problem 2
Let \(a,b,c\) be positive real numbers such that \(a+b+c=4\sqrt[3]{abc}\). Prove that \[2(ab+bc+ca)+4\min(a^2,b^2,c^2)\ge a^2+b^2+c^2.\]
218 replies
hwl0304
Apr 18, 2018
Maximilian113
Yesterday at 9:41 PM
Good Problem??
pedronis   0
Apr 19, 2025
Let \( m \geq 2 \) be a positive integer and \( p \geq 5 \) a prime number. Consider the sequence \( a_1, a_2, \ldots \) defined by
\[
a_n = (p - 2)^n + p^n - m, \quad \text{for } n \geq 1.
\]Let \( q \) be the smallest prime such that some term of the sequence is divisible by \( q \). Determine all pairs \( (m, p) \) for which \( q \geq m \).
0 replies
pedronis
Apr 19, 2025
0 replies
Good Problem??
G H J
The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
pedronis
26 posts
#1
Y by
Let \( m \geq 2 \) be a positive integer and \( p \geq 5 \) a prime number. Consider the sequence \( a_1, a_2, \ldots \) defined by
\[
a_n = (p - 2)^n + p^n - m, \quad \text{for } n \geq 1.
\]Let \( q \) be the smallest prime such that some term of the sequence is divisible by \( q \). Determine all pairs \( (m, p) \) for which \( q \geq m \).
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