The American Mathematics Competition is one of the best-known math competitions for high school students in the United States. Most high school students take either the AMC 10 or AMC 12, depending on their grade and age, and both competitions focus on using familiar mathematics in unfamiliar ways. You don’t need to be taking calculus or preparing for the Mathematical Olympiad to participate.
But one of the first things students should understand is AMC’s unusual scoring system. A correct answer earns 6 points, a blank answer earns 1.5, and a wrong answer earns nothing. With five answer choices, that means a completely random guess has a lower expected score than leaving a difficult question blank. The scoring system can significantly affect how students approach the 75-minute exam.
The American Mathematics Competitions, formally the MAA American Mathematics Competitions, are run by the Mathematical Association of America and serve as the first step in the MAA pathway that can ultimately lead to selection for the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team. Students who perform well enough on the AMC 10 or AMC 12 can advance to the AIME. From there, top performers may advance to the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) or USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO), followed by the Mathematical Olympiad Program (MOP) and Team Selection Tests; ultimately, six students are selected through the IMO team selection process for the U.S. team.
For most students, the AMC will be the only step they take, and that’s fine. The MAA describes the AMC 10 and AMC 12 as competitions designed to develop students’ problem solving skills, while the broader MAA AMC program aims to encourage mathematical exploration and achievement. The competitions also help educators identify mathematical talent and foster students’ interest in mathematics and problem-solving. Working through its challenging problems can also exercise critical thinking and mathematical flexibility. It’s one of the most established math competitions for high schoolers, and it sits alongside a broader set of math extracurriculars students can explore, from competition math to independent research, each building a different kind of skill.
The AMC is also an individual competition. Other high school contests take different formats. The Stanford Math Tournament, for example, includes individual events as well as a team round, while the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT) combines individual and team events.
On college applications, AMC achievements can be presented as academic honors or achievements rather than as college entrance test scores. The Common App, for example, gives students space to report academic honors and achievements, while its standardized Testing section doesn’t list the AMC among the tests students can self-report.
But because individual colleges set their own application and testing policies, there is no universal admissions value assigned to an AMC score or distinction. It’s just one piece of evidence of a student’s mathematical ability and engagement with mathematics within the broader application.
That matters when a student moves from competition math into research. The AMC and AIME reward speed and accuracy on problems that already have a known answer. Original research is generally more open-ended: students formulate or refine a research question and use approaches such as proof, analysis, modeling, computation, or experimentation to investigate it.
The AMC math competition is organized into three exams by grade level, and eligibility is broader than many students assume:
Those are maximum age and grade limits, not minimums. A strong ninth grader, for example, can take the AMC 10 without waiting until tenth grade and may also be eligible for the AMC 12.
Students also have some flexibility in which exams they take. They cannot take both AMC 10 and AMC 12 on the same day, but they can take both during the same competition cycle. The A and B competitions are held on different dates, allowing students to take the AMC 10A on the first date and the AMC 12B on the second, for example. Students can also take both the A and B versions of the AMC 10 or both versions of the AMC 12.
Registration works differently from a typical standardized test. You don’t sign up directly with the MAA. Instead, students participate through an approved host site, which can be a school, college or university, math circle, or learning center. These sites are registered and administered by competition managers. The easiest place for a student to start is usually a math teacher or club advisor. If a student’s school doesn’t offer the AMC, they can look for another participating site nearby.
For the 2026–27 cycle, each AMC 10 or AMC 12 competition bundle provides ten student licenses that a host can distribute between the A and B dates. A student who takes both versions uses two student licenses. Registration deadlines also differ by host: October 15, 2026 is the final deadline for new competition managers, while returning competition managers can use the late registration period through October 28. Students should therefore contact a host well before the competition. The MAA registration page provides a complete list of current dates and deadlines.
Calculators are not allowed on the AMC 8, AMC 10, or AMC 12. That makes pacing, number sense, and efficient hand calculation an important part of preparation, especially on the later questions where the difficulty rises quickly.
Comparing AMC 8 vs. AMC 10 vs. AMC 12, all three exams share the same basic shape: 25 multiple-choice questions and no calculator. The scoring differs, however. On the AMC 8, a right answer gets you 1 point while wrong and unanswered questions earn 0. On the AMC 10 and AMC 12, a correct answer earns 6 points, an unanswered question earns 1.5 points, and a wrong answer earns 0. They also differ in timing, content, and what a strong performance can lead to next.
Strong AMC 8 performances can also earn national recognition. Students in approximately the top 5% earn Honor Roll recognition, while those in approximately the top 1% earn Distinguished Honor Roll recognition. Because the score cutoffs depend on that year’s results, the number of correct answers needed for either distinction can change from year to year.
The AMC 10 and AMC 12 use the same point structure: 6 points for a correct answer, 1.5 points for a blank, and 0 for an incorrect answer, for a maximum possible score of 150. That structure means a completely random five-choice guess has an expected value of 1.2 points, compared with 1.5 points for leaving the question blank. That’s why leaving a genuinely uncertain question blank is usually the better move when a student has no information to narrow the choices down.
A high enough AMC 10 or AMC 12 score qualifies an otherwise eligible student to register for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), a harder, 15-question exam in which each answer is an integer from 0 to 999. It’s the next stage in the MAA competition pathway toward the USAJMO and USAMO. Starting with the 2026–27 competition cycle, AIME qualification uses fixed score thresholds rather than percentage-based thresholds: a score of 100 or above on the AMC 10, or 85 or above on the AMC 12, qualifies an eligible student for the AIME. For the 2027 AIME, students must also be at least 13 years old and meet the MAA’s other eligibility requirements.
Students who don’t reach the threshold on their first AMC administration may still qualify on the second competition date. Eligible students can take an A exam on November 5 and a B exam on November 13, although they cannot take both the AMC 10 and AMC 12 on the same competition day.
Effective AMC preparation looks less like general math review and more like targeted, timed practice. A useful preparation plan combines topic review, problem-solving practice, and work under the competition’s actual time limit.
Build the foundation first. The AMC 10 covers topics including elementary algebra, basic geometry, number theory, and probability, while excluding trigonometry, advanced algebra, and advanced geometry. The AMC 12 covers the full high school mathematics curriculum, including trigonometry, advanced algebra, and advanced geometry. Neither exam includes calculus. Success therefore depends less on studying calculus than on becoming flexible with the mathematical material actually covered by the competition.
Work through past exams under real time constraints. The MAA provides sample competitions and practice resources, while outlets like the Art of Problem Solving wiki collect past AMC problems and solutions. Practicing untimed helps students learn techniques and content; practicing under the actual 75-minute limit also helps them learn how much time they can afford to spend on individual problems.
Learn when to move on from a problem. AMC problems generally get more difficult toward the later part of the exam, although difficulty can vary from student to student. Spending too long on one difficult question can leave too little time for other problems a student could solve. A practical approach is to move on when a problem is consuming too much time and return to it later if time remains.
Know when a blank is the better answer. Given the 6/1.5/0 scoring, a completely random five-choice guess has an expected value of 1.2 points, so leaving the question blank is better mathematically. If a student can eliminate one choice, guessing among the remaining four has the same expected value as leaving it blank: 1.5 points. Eliminating two or more choices makes guessing the higher-value option. That trade-off is worth understanding before test day rather than calculating it under pressure.
This kind of deliberate, timed practice develops speed and accuracy under constraints, a different skill set from the patience and creativity that open-ended problem-solving tends to reward.
Treating every problem as worth the same amount of time. Every correct answer is worth 6 points regardless of difficulty, but that doesn’t mean every problem deserves equal time. Spending too long on one difficult problem can leave less time for other questions a student may be able to solve more quickly.
Guessing blind on unfamiliar problems. As covered above, a random guess among five choices has a lower expected value than leaving the question blank. When a student cannot eliminate any answer choices, leaving the question blank has a higher expected value than guessing randomly.
Skipping error review after practice tests. Getting a practice problem wrong is useful information if a student goes back and identifies why: a content gap, a careless error, or a pacing issue. Reviewing missed problems can help students identify which concepts or problem-solving approaches they need to practice further.
Under-preparing for the format, not just the content. The AMC 10 and AMC 12 give students 75 minutes to complete 25 multiple-choice questions without a calculator. Practicing at least some full exams under those same conditions can help students become familiar with the pacing and format before competition day.
Registering too late. Students do not register directly with the MAA; they participate through an approved competition site such as a school, college or university, math circle, or learning center. Students should find a participating site well before competition day. Competition sites must register with the MAA by specified deadlines, and individual sites may also set their own deadlines or limits for student participation.
There’s no single official cutoff for what colleges consider “good,” since the AMC isn’t an admissions exam and schools don’t publish thresholds. The most concrete, current benchmark is AIME qualification: as of the 2026–27 cycle, a score of 100 or above on the AMC 10 qualifies an otherwise eligible student to register for the AIME. Because the MAA now uses a fixed qualifying threshold rather than a percentile cutoff, it is more precise to describe 100 as an AIME-qualifying score than as a particular national percentile. An AMC result can be reported as an academic achievement or honor on a college application, but individual colleges decide how much weight, if any, to give it within their admissions process.
The AMC 12 draws on the full high school math curriculum, including trigonometry, advanced algebra, and advanced geometry, while the AMC 10 is limited to topics such as elementary algebra, basic geometry, area and volume, elementary number theory, and probability. In terms of the topics covered, the AMC 12 therefore has a broader and more advanced syllabus, although exam difficulty for an individual student depends on their background and strengths. The AIME qualification threshold is also lower for the AMC 12 in the 2026–27 cycle: 85, compared with 100 for the AMC 10. A younger student strong enough to handle the AMC 10’s content well may still find the AMC 10 a better fit than the AMC 12, even if they’re eligible for both.
No. Calculators are prohibited on the AMC 8, AMC 10, and AMC 12 under the current MAA rules. Every problem is intended to be completed without one, so preparation should happen without a calculator from the start rather than adjusting late.
The AMC 10 and AMC 12 are 25-question, multiple-choice exams, while the AIME is a 15-question exam where every answer is an integer from 0 to 999, so there’s no guessing from a list of choices. Beginning in 2027, the AIME is computer-based and administered in two 90-minute parts at Pearson testing centers. The AIME is available only to students who qualify through the AMC 10 or AMC 12 and meet the other eligibility requirements, so it functions as the next step in the competition pathway rather than a separate, parallel competition.
The AMC rewards preparation that’s specific rather than general: timed practice, honest error review, and an understanding of the exam’s own scoring logic. Preparing this way can help students develop pacing, accuracy, and the ability to decide when to move on from a difficult problem. Those are useful problem-solving habits regardless of whether a student eventually advances to the AIME.
For students who discover along the way that they’re drawn less to solving a known problem quickly and more to investigating an open one slowly, that’s worth paying attention to. It’s a different kind of mathematical interest, and several math summer programs for high school students are built specifically to support it.
Students interested in conducting the highest level of research for high school students should consider joining a Pioneer information session to learn more about the Pioneer Research Institute.
Based on a recent survey, 71 percent of Pioneer Research scholars’ acceptances were to the top 20 US colleges and universities. Additionally, our alumni report acceptances to highly-selective institutions at a rate five times higher than the school’s published acceptance rate.
If you are a 9th or 10th grader, we encourage you to also check out the Global Problem-Solving Institute. You’ll have the rare opportunity to take an interdisciplinary approach to common world problems, while earning college credits from UNC-Chapel Hill.
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