AMC Extends Red MOP to 10th Graders

by rrusczyk, Dec 18, 2009, 4:59 AM

The AMC has officially announced the Junior USAMO, and has extended Red MOP to 10th graders. Here is the official announcement.

It will be interesting to see how students' decisions regarding which tests to take change over time. It's not clear to me what optimal strategy is right now, besides "do lots of fun problems and learn cool math", which should be the optimal strategy in any case...

Comment

11 Comments

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
I think that they are promoting USAJMO, and encouraging 10th graders to take JMO.

But the new rule will not pick the best top 25 in red MOP. Some top 9th / 10th graders who take USAMO may never get chance to go to red MOP.

Also, except for resume or MOSP experience, there is no point for a 10th grader to go to red MOP since it is unlikely that person will go any further in the future, which defeats the original purpose of red mop.

by shtsxc12, Dec 18, 2009, 3:23 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
I'm not sure -- letting 10th graders into red MOP will catch some late bloomers. It will also help some top 9th graders from the year before overcome a bad day on the USAMO (but not a horrible one) in the 10th grade. Indisputably, it will result in fewer distinct students at MOP over time. It's not clear what the long-term effect of reducing variance in favor of "picking winners earlier" will be in terms of the US IMO team. I'd guess it would produce a small increase the strength of the team (but wouldn't be shocked if that weren't the case), at the cost of including fewer distinct students at MOP and thereby decreasing (again, only a small bit) student enthusiasm for the AMC at the very top. This decrease in enthusiasm will likely be more than offset by the fact that 7th-9th graders who had no chance at USAMO 2,3,5,6 now will have a test with more problems they can handle.

by rrusczyk, Dec 18, 2009, 4:00 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
"The decreasing of student enthusiasm for the AMC at the very top", may drive those students to abandon the dream of MOSP, instead of using more summer weeks to work on other things, like Intel, siemens projects, etc.

Also, late bloomers are very few compared to early bloomers.

by shtsxc12, Dec 18, 2009, 4:22 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
"Also, late bloomers are very few compared to early bloomers."

Certainly more true than it used to be, and I think we're part of the reason why, but it would be nice if we could find a way to identify more late bloomers. I think there are a lot of very strong math students out there still that the universe of extracurricular math programs miss entirely.

by rrusczyk, Dec 18, 2009, 5:36 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
My strategy: Take the 10 and the 12 and then hope for the best :|

by Mewto55555, Dec 18, 2009, 6:51 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
@rrusczyk, it is very likely that most of the red 1 will be last year's red mop, do you call those returning red mop "late bloomers" also ?

The very talented 9th graders who are taking USAMO, their opportunity will be reduced and their advancement may be delayed. I am not sure if it is the best way to discover future IMO team,

by shtsxc12, Dec 19, 2009, 9:21 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
I'm not arguing that all 10th graders who make it will be late bloomers. Indisputably, some will. I don't know what impact it will have on the IMO team. I expect it won't make that great a difference either way.

by rrusczyk, Dec 20, 2009, 1:32 AM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
I'm not sure what my opinion on this is, but I will say that it would have changed my experience -- 9th grade I didn't qualify USAMO and then 10th grade when I did qualify for USAMO, my score was one short of Blue MOP. Luckily, in 11th grade I made MOP, and there were quite a few other juniors in blue MOP whose first year was that year. But if there had been a red MOP for 10th graders in my day, I'm not so sure if it would have helped or hindered me...

by cosinator, Dec 20, 2009, 4:21 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
You are really a "late bloomer" as called by rrusczyk :)

How did you improve so much from 9th to 10th ? Did you take WOOT or/and went to Awesome Math ?

by shtsxc12, Dec 20, 2009, 4:50 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
Well, of course there's the slight luck sometimes involved in making USAMO.

by math154, Dec 20, 2009, 5:01 PM

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.
This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.
Yeah, I mostly just bombed the AIME.

by cosinator, Dec 20, 2009, 9:47 PM

Come Search With Me

avatar

rrusczyk
Archives
+ December 2011
+ September 2011
+ August 2011
+ March 2011
+ June 2006
AMC
Tags
About Owner
  • Posts: 16194
  • Joined: Mar 28, 2003
Blog Stats
  • Blog created: Jan 28, 2005
  • Total entries: 940
  • Total visits: 3309285
  • Total comments: 3877
Search Blog
a