The 50^th Anniversary of AHSME On February 9, 1999 students across America will participate in the 50^th anniversary American High School Math Exam. Initially the exam was given only in the New York area. It became a national exam in 1957. It has had various names over the years. Once called the MAA Exam, many know it (unofficially) as the National Math Exam.

I took it as a sophomore at my little Lafayette (Louisiana) High School in 1958, and was nearly overwhelmed. It was much harder than any math test I'd ever taken. But it had a great effect on me: I wanted to learn more mathematics and do better on contests like this one. My family moved to Shreveport the next year and my new school did not participate in the AHSME. But by then I knew that I could learn mathematics on my own, with minimal guidance from my teachers. This realization was probably the most important one of my high school years.

It was not until 1980 when I looked again at another high school math contest. By that time, I'd completed undergraduate work at Louisiana State University, married and completed graduate school at Clemson and Chapel Hill. I taught three years at University of Hawaii, then moved to UNC Charlotte, where, in 1973 my daughter Ashley was born. In 1980, UNCC began its participation in the State Math Contest program. I enjoyed the problem creation process so much that I volunteered to serve on the American High School Math Exam panel, whose job it is to create and polish the problems you see on the AHSME's. Looking back, I see that I've been doing this type work for more than 18 years now, including four years writing MathCounts problems, several years on the American Junior High School Exam Committee, and now six years of chairing the American High School Math Exam committee. I still love this work!

The AHSME has changed over the years. When I took it back in the 50's, some questions were supposed to be routine. There were questions of three types, and they had values from 3 points to 5 points. Many problems required some arithmetic of complex fractions and of algebraic expressions. Factoring was a well-tested skill. Some question types that were common would no longer be found on an AHSME. Many of these question types were eliminated by the 1993 decision to allow calculators. But some changes have occurred because of changes in the curriculum. Problems related to probability and statistics, especially counting problems are much more common now than in the 50's and 60's. And although our participants seem to do less well on geometry problems, the committee has continued to use 10 to 15 geometry problems every year. I have a strong bias towards problems that combine areas of high school skills, like probability and geometry. The committee also looks for problems that defy the calculator. We think it is important for students to realize just when the calculator is not helpful, and to disdain its use in those cases.

In honor of this 50^th anniversary milestone, the American Mathematics Competitions has created the Fiftieth AHSME Anniversary Edition which includes one question from each of the first 49 editions of the AHSME and a special 50th question. You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin to read them. Try the North Carolina AHSME website at

http://www.math.uncc.edu/~hbreiter/AHSME/NCahsme.html.

If you find that you cannot read the test at http://www.math.uncc.edu/~hbreiter/AHSME/anniver.pdf then try

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/smaurer1/50th.pdf.

The new AHSME I.

The staff and volunteers at American Math Competitions are excited about adding a fifth test to our offerings. The new AHSME I will be offered for the first time on Tuesday, February 8, 2000. It is designed for 9^th and 10^th graders, and will be offered simultaneously with the AHSME, which will now be called AHSME II. Both exams will last just 60 minutes and both will offer only 25 (instead of 30) questions. The scoring is likely to be as follows: 6 points for each correct answer, 2 points for each blank up to a total of 10 blanks-i.e., no more than 20 points will be allowed for blanks-and 0 points for each wrong answer.

We hope this new exam will enable many more 9^th and 10^th graders to participate in the American Math Competitions. The table below shows the number of students at each grade participating in AMC exams:

Notice the huge decline in participation from 8^th grade to 9^th grade. Of course, the reason is that many eighth graders do the AJHSME and 9^th graders cannot. We would like to see as many ninth graders participating as 8^th graders. Hence, the new exam.

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