Competition Mathematical Association of America
AMC 10/12
The nation's largest high school math competition, and the first step toward AIME, USAMO, and the IMO team. Register through your school's math department.
A clearer starting point
What this opportunity is really like
Here’s the short version before you leave Pathfind to investigate the official details.
What you would do
You take one paper: 25 multiple-choice questions in 75 minutes, scored out of 150 — 6 points for a correct answer, 1.5 for a blank, and 0 for a wrong one — so a considered guess is usually worth more than leaving a question empty. There are two versions in November (A on November 5, 2026 and B on November 13, 2026), and your school's competition manager can enter you for either or both; no one takes the AMC 10 and the AMC 12 on the same day. You don't sign up with the MAA yourself: ask your school, or a nearby college, math circle, or learning center, because a competition manager has to register and pay the fees.
Why it might be worth your time
It's the first rung of the U.S. math olympiad ladder: a high enough AMC 10 or AMC 12 score earns an invitation to the AIME, which leads toward the USAMO/USAJMO and, eventually, the team that represents the U.S. at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The MAA publishes its AIME qualifying scores each year — recent cycles used 100 or above on the AMC 10 and 85 or above on the AMC 12 — so your score gives you a concrete, comparable signal of where you stand.
Is it a good fit?
The MAA's own rules are narrower than the grade range Pathfind lists: the AMC 10 is for students in grade 10 and below who are under 17.5 on competition day, and the AMC 12 is for grade 12 and below who are under 19.5. The AMC 10 leaves out trigonometry and advanced algebra but assumes elementary algebra, basic geometry, number theory and probability; the AMC 12 covers the full high school curriculum except calculus. So the AMC 10 is the usual starting point if you're earlier in high school, and the AMC 12 fits if your coursework has gone past those AMC 10 topics.
Planning a summer around this? See the choosing a competition in high school it appears in, alongside the other verified options.