AMC - the longer post

Yesterday, I came to the AMC12 very prepared indeed: I forgot to bring a calculator (had to use a friend's, which kinda screwed me up), a ruler (the only one Mr. M had was 4 feet long), a compass and protracter, and graph paper (got lucky - found a sheet of graph paper in Mr. M's scratch paper pile, proclaimed, "I hit the jackpot!").

When I came to the testing room (Mr. M's room - he also happens to be my Stats teacher) after school, I expected three, maybe four people other than myself there. To my surprise, there were a total of six AMC10 takers and four AMC12 takers (including myself), some of whom I didn't even know. These numbers are about the same as last year, but this year we had the disadvantage of only having one test day (we have only the geniuses behind the High School Exit Exam to thank for taking away the AMC A). Yesterday also happened to be a practice day for the tennis team; we lost about five kids due to that.

It is interesting to note that other than myself, every single test taker paid that very day (we - well, not me of course - had about two week's notice of the AMC). Several paid right before taking the AMC, and Mr. M even let two take the AMC12 without paying (they promised to pay the next day, but I have doubts about that).

Anyways, my lack of proper tools did hurt me, but not as bad as I originally thought. I won't discuss individual problems yet - not sure if I'm allowed to - but this year's test was different from last year's. Call me crazy, but I think that the easy problems were easier, and the harder problems were harder this year, which of course is not a good sign.

I solved 18 problems - not very good - but, after comparing answers with Bob, to my surprise I found that I solved all 18 right, giving me a solid 118.5 score, more than enough to make it to the AIME.

I'm going to be busier than ever now. The AIME is coming up, and after that I have about a month break before the APs. And maybe an SAT or two. Yup, my free time is gonna be severely limited...