High School Contest Math

Academic Year Mathematics

AoPS has prepared students for the most prestigious high school competitions since 1993. Over the last decade, most winners of the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) have been AoPS students, including 15 USAMO winners in 2020, as well as the US team members that won the International Math Olympiad (IMO) in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019. In this course, students study strategies crucial for success on the American Mathematics Competitions 10 and 12 (AMC 10 and 12), the American Invitational Math Exam (AIME), the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament, and other major high school contests.

This course is a challenge which builds on foundational knowledge that students should already have from their high school math courses. Students should expect to encounter difficult problems and topics and should either have completed an Algebra 2 course or be currently enrolled in one to be successful in this course.

Note for students who have taken this course: We alternate between two different versions of this course from one year to the next. The two versions are roughly the same difficulty, but include different lessons, practice contests, and homework. Therefore, students taking this course for two consecutive years will see different material in the second year than in the first.

Homework and exams

Students should expect to spend 1-3 hours on homework every week. Homework will be assigned and completed through the class website, where students receive immediate feedback on their work. Students will take four in-class exams, structured as practice math contests, throughout the course.

Textbook

The textbook for the course is the Art of Problem Solving, Volume 2: and Beyond.

Hardcopy and lifetime digital access to the online version of the textbook are included in the tuition and fees of this course.

Syllabus

Sample Problems

Below are examples of some of the types of problems that students will encounter in our High School Contest Math course.