Dear MAA/ CAMC,

The cutoff for the 2016 AMC 12B has been posted as 106.5, which not only goes against the 100 point AIME floor published in two of your publications, but also unfairly denies more than 700 students the opportunity to take the AIME.

Here are the rules for clarification established by the MAA as of 2016:
1. The FAQs on the MAA website (#5):

https://web.archive.org/web/20160227031947/http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/faqs/faqs-aime 

(As of March 2nd, 2016, the MAA has reworded the AIME FAQ #5. Records remain to prove that this FAQ answer was on the site at the time of the contests. This change post-contest ought not to affect the rules of the 2016 contests, which have already passed)

"Q. AIME #5. How do I qualify for the AIME?
A. Students who score 100 or above or finish in the top 5% (whichever is more inclusive) on an AMC 12 or students who score 120 or above or finish in the top 2.5% (whichever is more inclusive) on the AMC 10 are eligible to take the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). The AMC will automatically send a copy of the first date AIME contest to the school contest manager for each student achieving a qualifying score."
Note the usage of the term "Whichever is more inclusive".
2. http://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/AMC/aime/TM-AIME.pdf
"All students who are in the top 5% of all American Mathematics Contest 12 (AMC 12) participants or score at least 100 points
on the AMC 12 and those with a score in the top 2.5% of the American Mathematics Contest 10 (AMC 10) participants or
score at least 120 points, are invited to take the AIME. The AIME is the second in the sequence of mathematics contests which
leads to participation in the USA Mathematical Olympiad and the designation of Winners of the USA(J)MO. "
Also note that both sources are the most recent version of their respective documents, and that vague terms such as "approximately" are not present in either.

Many students plan their strategies according to the 100 floor and an unexpected and unprecedented change to this rule, along with a lack of publicity about this hugely important change means that hundreds of kids with scores between 100 and 106.5 are not allowed to take the AIME.

The other three contests this year, the AMC 10A, 10B ,had cutoffs below the 2.5% threshold and the 12A had cutoff scores below the 5% threshold;none of them went above the hard cutoff of 120 (for the AMC 10A/B) or 100 (for the AMC 12A). Thus, this unexplained cutoff of 106.5 also unfairly punishes students who chose to take the 12B, which creates an unbalanced competitive environment and compromises the competitive integrity of the exams.

We, the many students see this rule as being illogical and detrimental to the AMC contests as a whole, thus want the current cutoff to be changed back to a 100 and for students who scored between 100 and 106.5 on the AMC 12B to be allowed to take the AIME. As in a previous year, we think that the students who have been negatively affected should be allowed to take the AIME II officially instead.

Sincerely,

The AoPS Community