Exam Day

Everything here is a decision made in advance, so that nothing has to be decided
on the day. Tick each line as it is done.

The week before

• Take the last full contest five to seven days out, timed, under exam conditions.
• After it, add every miss to the error log. Do not start new topics.
• Empty the review queue, or get it under five problems.
• Re-read the scoring rules below until the guessing rule is automatic.
• Confirm the date, the start time, and the room with the school or the host site.
• Sleep at the intended time for at least three nights before, not just the last one.

What to bring

• Two or three sharpened pencils, HB or #2.
• A good eraser, separate from the pencils.
• A watch that is silent and has no calculator and no internet.
• The admission or registration details, if the host site asks for them.
• Water and something small to eat before the exam, not during.

What not to bring

• A calculator of any kind. It is not permitted on the AMC 10.
• A phone, a smartwatch, or headphones. Leave them with a parent or in a bag.
• Notes, formula sheets, or graph paper. Scratch work goes on the test booklet.

The morning

• Eat a normal breakfast, the kind eaten on a normal school day.
• Arrive with twenty minutes to spare.
• Do not attempt a hard problem to "warm up". Read the formula sheet once instead, quietly.
• Go to the toilet before the exam starts. It is 75 minutes without a break.

During the exam: the rules decided in advance

• Fill in the answer sheet as each problem is finished, not all at the end.
• Spend no more than four minutes on any one problem on the first pass. Mark it and move on.
• Finish problems 1 through 10 in the first twenty minutes, and check them as they are done.
• Guess only after eliminating at least two choices. Otherwise leave it blank.
• Remember a blank is worth 1.5 and a wrong answer is worth 0. Five confident blanks beat five guesses.
• Reserve the last five minutes to re-read problems 1 through 10, where a careless slip costs the most.
• Do not change an answer at the end unless a definite error is found.

Right after

• Write down, from memory, every problem that felt uncertain. Do this before leaving the room's corridor.
• Enter the answers on the site the same day, while the paper is fresh.
• Do not look up the answer key with other students before recording your own.