Should I host my own AMC exam?

[daijobu]

The AMC8 is hosted at a local university and my dd participated last year.  It was okay.  The room was crowded.  They wrote their exams on those little hinged mini-desks you see so often in college lecture halls. It took place in the evening when we're normally eating dinner, and perhaps not the ideal test-taking time.  

 

If I hosted my own AMC8, I could reserve a nice room the library, where each student would have a nice wide workspace of their own.  There would be fewer students in the room, maybe a dozen.  We could meet up in the afternoon, during daylight hours.  

 

Am I crazy to think I ought to host my own AMC exam?  It's not like the test-taking conditions last year were terrible.  Just less than ideal.  Or am I asking for a lot of extra work and headache?  

[Julie of KY]

You'd have to arrange a proctor who isn't related. AMC has rules about who they wish to be proctors. I had a minister proctor the AMC 8 for my son by himself. It was a hassle.

 

Fortunately, we have a local university that proctors (and pays for) the AMC 10/12 for any interested students.

[Luckymama]

I hosted the AMC8 last year. It was a pain. I had 10 kids (well, their parents) initially express strong interest. I booked a room at the library and tried to find someone who could proctor an exam in the afternoon. That was the biggest pain because it was difficult to find someone unrelated to a test taker without little kids who was available for that short period of time. Sigh. An old friend (dd used to got to school w her daughter) finally agreed to proctor because her dd was participating in an afterschool activity that day.

 

And to boot, only three kids participated after all.

 

According to the AMC site the local university did not sponsor any of the exams last year. Dd will be participating in the high school math circle at the university next month----I hope to find a hosting location through the math circle.

 

If not, I think I'll just pay for the test again but not open it up to others, counting the cost as part of homeschooling. The stress was not worth it.

 

OP, see if you can line up a proctor now.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We've done the testing twice. Once with a tutoring center and once that I coordinated. I will coordinate again.

My friend is proctor and doesn't have a kid testing. She does a great job and made it fun. This year I'll advertise it outside our group and ask for payment ahead of time.

The test center was over an hour away in heavy traffic. We almost missed the start of the test even though we'd left two hours for travel. It was a lot of stress.

Plus I was able to bring students in to test who'd never heard of AMC before.

[Kathy in Richmond]

I hosted my own AMC 8/10/12 exams for years. They were offered at our local public schools, but testing conditions there were less than ideal - PA system announcements, other interruptions, noisy environment, some kids not taking it seriously.

 

As long as you stay on top of the requirements in the Teacher's Manual, it's not a bad experience. Some years we hosted other kids, and some years we were on our own. It's more expensive to do it yourself, but not outrageous. You'll have to cover the cost of the registration fee for each exam administration in addition to the smaller cost of the exam booklets.

 

We reserved a room at the library (free). I have a retired teacher friend who was usually available to proctor. She didn't ask for payment, but we always gave her an honorarium for helping us out.

 

My kids did appreciate and do better in a quiet environment. When they got to higher levels (AIME and up), I did send them to the public school for testing. At that level, the school usually just had a student or two who qualified, and they gave the test in a quiet conference room off the principal's office. All kids involved loved the comraderie at that point.