Kyrgyzstan Ever since the Mesopotamians invented what would come to be mathematics; generations of individuals have kept up this legacy that has been with humanity for centuries, eons even. To this day, math is still not only taught and used, but even specialized by high school students, such as our Knights that took the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) exam and qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, an invitational competition for high-scoring AMC 10/12 participants.

The AMC 10 and AMC 12 are both 25-question, 75-minute, multiple-choice examinations in high school mathematics designed to promote the development and enhancement of problem-solving skills, in which students who took the AMC 12 and achieved a score of at least 100 out of 150 or took the AMC 10 and achieved a score of 120 out of 150 were qualified for the AIME exam. Today, we’ll be interviewing Raine Huang, a student who took the AMC 12 and is qualified to take the AIME exam on his thoughts on the exam, math, and being a senior in high school.

As stated earlier, Raine is a senior at Arizona College Prep High School and enjoys making video in his free time. He’s a big fan of math, and thinks that the ways you can explore it are very interesting. “Preparation for these competitions”, he says, “are often done by doing previous exams and then reviewing your answers, much like an AP exam, but far more casual.” Interestingly, Raine has taken previous AMC exams before, for five years in a row, as it is the biggest math competition in the nation! “I’ve qualified for the AIME once before, in my sophomore year,” he adds. “One unique thing about these tests is the fact that despite being multiple choice, you risk points by guessing incorrectly,” and says that there are no Free Response Questions, making it unlike AP exams in that regard. When asking Raine what advice he would give to someone who is interested in taking the AMC exam, Raine commented, “If you like STEM, take it just for fun! Math can be enjoyed casually too, as weird as it may seem for many people.”

Math gets a lot of negativity, despite being a fundamental foundation in our society. Math is almost like a puzzle, in which you put together different variables, functions, and formulas to get the bigger picture, and it always ends up making sense once you find the answer, similar to how you literally get the bigger picture when you finish a puzzle. While it isn’t for everyone, math is still very much a useful and even enjoyable task that you can tinker with once you understand what you are doing. In any case, if you are interested in taking the AMC exam for next year, be sure to check out the information here! As always, remember to strive for the impossible and be extraordinary!