Dear Members of the MAA Administration and Board of Directors,

We respectfully request that the MAA reconsider the current qualification criteria for the USA(J)MO competitions in order to ensure greater fairness and transparency.

Starting this year, the USAMTS/MAA introduced a surprising new policy allowing USAMTS qualifiers to reach USAJMO with an AIME score of 9 or 10 and USAMO with a score of 11 or higher. By contrast, in previous years, even a perfect USAMTS score of 75 was counted as only 100 on the AMC. This sudden policy shift substantially inflated the number of USA(J)MO qualifiers through USAMTS—an open-book format that is more vulnerable to cheating. Furthermore, this policy change was not publicly announced at the beginning of the competition season and was only disclosed to selected students, creating unfairness.

This inconsistency gives USAMTS participants an unfair advantage and undermines the integrity of the AMC qualification pathway. Under the new USAMTS standard, students via the traditional AMC-AIME pathway now face exceptionally high AMC score cutoffs—some of which are nearly impossible to achieve, particularly on the AMC 10B. AMC-AIME Qualification Path:

AMC 10A: 144 (0.3%)
          DHR: 132 (0.9%)
AMC 10B: 153 (Unattainable) - Eg. Compared to a USAMTS student who qualified with an AIME score of 9, an AMC student with the same AIME score would need an impossible AMC 10B score of 153 to qualify.
AMC 12A: 132 (1.0%)
          DHR: 133.5 (0.8%)
AMC 12B: 141 (0.9%)
          DHR: 139.5 (1.1%)

This unfairly disadvantages AMC students who achieved the same AIME scores as USAMTS qualifiers but were denied qualification through the AMC pathway. We strongly urge MAA to reconsider and expand A(J)MO spots to AMC students who reached the same AIME scores as USAMTS qualifiers.

Many students with solid math competition track didn’t make A(J)MO while peers with identical AIME scores but without a comparable history in math competitions have advanced through the USAMTS route. Understandably, this has been deeply discouraging for many students, and they are struggling to reconcile why students with the same AIME scores are eligible for A(J)MO through USAMTS while they can’t.

If grading capacity is a concern and additional funding is needed to hire more staff, we would be more than happy to contribute and support this effort. We can swiftly raise the necessary funds to help accommodate the grading of additional tests. However, if grading remains a challenge even with sufficient funding due to the difficulty of assembling qualified graders on short notice, we are open to making evaluation optional or delaying grading for additionally qualified students. Adjusting the criteria in this way would still grant these dedicated participants the recognition they deserve. Even without immediate scoring, allowing them to participate would validate their years of hard work, promote fairness, and uphold trust in the competition’s integrity.

We respectfully request MAA to address this inconsistency and ensure a fair and equitable selection process for all students this year. We appreciate your time and consideration in addressing this important matter.

Sincerely,
Concerned math team coaches, volunteers, parents.