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AMC closed to homeschools


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I just got off the phone with the MAA and was told that homeschools will no longer be allowed to register directly for the AMC exams and will have to take the tests through schools/universities offering the exam. Homeschools that were previously registered, however, will be allowed to register for this year's exams but should expect that to change.

Grrr...

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On 9/7/2018 at 4:49 PM, Calming Tea said:

What could possibly be their reason for this?

 

My guess is that they have had some issue with some of the proctors not following the protocol when administering the tests.  It is a shame as many homeschoolers will now be shut out from participating as other schools may not permit homeschoolers to take the test at their facilities.  

ETA: Another reason, probably more likely than the proctor not following protocol is test security.  It has been a few years since my kid participated, but our librarian proctored the exam.  Once the exam was over, the librarian took my kid's exam to mail, but gave me all of the remaining contents of the packet that the AMC folks had sent to her.  The remaining contents of the packet contained the unused AMC exams that were in the bundle that we had to order.  

Theoretically, I could have given one of these extra unused exam to someone else who was planning on taking the exam later in the day.  This student could have had hours to study the test before he went in to take the proctored exam.  

 

Edited by alewife
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Wow, that's bad news!

As Laura mentioned, there was a problem a few years ago involving non-homeschooled kids posing as homeschoolers. I think it was because they wanted to form super teams by pulling good students from several different high schools (which is against the rules), calling themselves a homeschooled team, and thus having a better chance of winning team honors. Or as alewife said, maybe they caught wind of some cheating going on in these groups.

Either way, it's a shame for legitimate, honest homeschoolers who want to participate on their own. I suppose that we can still ask to participate along with a local high school, but that assumes that (1) there's such a high school available, and (2) the high school will allow homeschoolers in to take the exam.

We always found it easy to take the AMC exams proctored in the study room of our local library. No fuss, and a good quiet atmosphere!

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3 hours ago, alewife said:

Theoretically, I could have given one of these extra unused exam to someone else who was planning on taking the exam later in the day.  This student could have had hours to study the test before he went in to take the proctored exam.  

 

I think the problem is similar to the SAT and ACT scandals. While AoPS forums have a blackout for AMCs discussion, other social media do not. My kids took the AMC10A last year at 6pm Pacific Time. Parents mentioned there were leaks as in kids were discussing in school and on social media. 

There is only one set of AMC questions for all the time zones in the states. Hawaii is six hours behind New York. It is similar to the AP exams situation where leaks happened on social media.

10 minutes ago, Kathy in Richmond said:

As Laura mentioned, there was a problem a few years ago involving non-homeschooled kids posing as homeschoolers. I think it was because they wanted to form super teams by pulling good students from several different high schools (which is against the rules), calling themselves a homeschooled team, and thus having a better chance of winning team honors. 

 

I thought AMC8/10/12 is an individual event while MathCounts is the team event.

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27 minutes ago, Kathy in Richmond said:

There are team awards for those AMC levels, even if teams don't move ahead to AIME, USAMO, etc.

 

I only saw the school honors awards and didn’t realize there were team awards. My kids took the AMC hosted by Stanford Math Circle as individuals so I am unaware of any team awards.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

It appears JJM's early alert is confirmed in the new AMC Policies:

Competition Administration:

The MAA AMC is a school-based competition. The competition is administered by a competition manager. This person must be a teacher, faculty member, or administrator affiliated with the school and must use a valid school email address for registration. They must be an adult who is not related to any of the participants. Under no circumstances may a parent or guardian of a student taking the AMC be involved in the administration of the competition. The competition must take place at the school or institution that has registered for the competition.

*Effective 2019 - 2020 competition cycle, only accredited schools and institutions will be allowed to administer MAA AMC competitions.

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For a few years now we’ve been able to arrange for our boys to take the AMC at first a private HS and this year a local public school.  Initially both schools were not sure how to handle combining homeschoolers with their school’s student with respect to the awards and some parent reaction. We offered that any awards should go to the school’s students.  For example, last year DS2 finished 1st and DS2 finished 3rd.  We received the official AMC school report showing those results.  DS2, as a sixth grader made the AMC stats,  However, the school’s internal awards for the 1st and 3rd place award/certificate went to the school’s student who actually finished 2nd and 4th on the official report.  Our kids didn’t mind.  They got their scores, got the official report and kudos from a couple school admin folks.  It’s been a good compromise and certainly better than not having access to the AMC. 

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  • 4 months later...

The MAA just posted their registration forms for the 2019-20 AMC season of exams.  

2019 AMC 8

2020 AMC 10 12

Notice in Step 1 and Step 2 it appears you can still register as a homeschool.  This contradicts what they've been writing about restricting AMC registration to schools:

image.thumb.png.1a23f6ffd94003e01c5ec51d2bcf53d1.png

and

image.thumb.png.aa00bf48036e586c654a68a9f5c4fa32.png

I'm not sure what to believe.  I'm going to hand it over to our librarian and hope for the best.  

 

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We've been taking it at a university about an hour away, so there are some "open enrollment" type options in some places. TBH though, it is usually my Dd and a bunch of boys who came from a local private school. I hope they continue to offer the test site.

Edited by MamaSprout
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  • 2 months later...
10 hours ago, lchung74 said:

How can I find out which schools/universities offer the AMC 8? And is the AMC 8 only open for middle school students or can a 5th grader take it too?

Try here: AMC-8 locations.

As per the official AMC-8 page:

Q. Who is eligible to participate in the competition?

A. Students with a passion for problem-solving who are in grade 8 or below and under 14.5 years of age on the day of the competition are eligible to participate in the AMC 8.

One of my kids enjoyed participating from 5th grade on.

 

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