The USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS) is a free mathematics competition open to all United States middle and high school students.
As opposed to most mathematics competitions, the USAMTS allows students a full month to work out their solutions. Carefully written justifications are required for each problem. The problems range in difficulty from being within the reach of most high school students to challenging the best students in the nation. Students may use any materials - books, calculators, computers - but all the work must be their own. The USAMTS is run on the honor system - it is an individual competition, whose competitive role is very secondary. (Although we do give prizes.)
Student solutions to the USAMTS problems are graded by mathematicians and comments are returned to the students. Our goal is to help all students:
- develop problem solving skills,
- improve their technical writing abilities,
- and mature mathematically.
We wish to foster not only insight, ingenuity and creativity, but also the virtue of perseverance, which is equally essential in scientific endeavors.
The USAMTS is one of the ways to enter the process of selecting the USA Mathematical Olympiad team, which participates in the International Mathematical Olympiad. The USAMTS score necessary to qualify for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) is set by the American Mathematics Competitions (which run the AIME) and varies from year to year. Students who score well on the USAMTS are invited to take the AIME, the second step in the process of selecting the USA Mathematical Olympiad Team.
With permission, USAMTS participant's names and addresses are provided to colleges, universities, and employers for recruitment purposes.
