[Mango 070]

ok so how many questions are going to be on this year's prelim exam? still 25?

and I'm going through fundamentals of physics by halliday, resnick, walker - is this good enough for the prelim mechanics exam (content and difficulty of content)......I'm able to do about 95 % of the end of chapter problems by myself without looking at the solutions....so do I have a good chance of getting to the second round (semifinals)

and....what were the previous cutoffs to advance from the first exam?

[#H34N1]

Last year a friend who got 15 got in

[zapi2007]

But they took out quarterfinals. (so we have to jump from F=ma to semis)

Any expectations? estimations?

[candyhyperalert]

Also, any idea on how may people actually take the test?
I think last year it was around ~1000 for quarter finals and 500 or 400 to semi finals (USAPHO)

How many take the F=ma exam though? that might help in estimates.

Just looking at the problems, it doesn't seem nearly as difficult as the AMC and a 20+ score is definitely posible.

[pascal12]

Since they took out the quarter finals, is there gonna be 25 MC on the F=ma?

Wiki says that the cutoff score for 2008 F=ma was around 16, although I have no idea how they got that statistic.
And the 2008 homepage says that over 2000 people took the F=ma test.

[Mango 070]

ok, I e-mailed the people who run the competition:
the preliminary exam is still 25 q and 75 min
I'm still waiting for the response to how many people will be admitted to semifinals (less because of no quarterfinals? or the same?) and what the cutoff scores, for the f=ma exam, were for previous years in order to get to quarterfinals, and if the test will be harder since there is no quarterfinals

[pascal12]

Wow, what a smart idea to email them! I seriously would have never thought of that.

The website says: "The top 400 to 500 students based on the combined score on the preliminary exam will be invited to take this exam." So it seems similar to previous years, although I have no idea what they mean by combined score.

[Mango 070]

ok its official from the reply to the e-mail i sent: 400-600 will advance to semifinals. It will be 25 questions, 75 minutes, and harder than last year.

[pascal12]

Ouch. Do you know if it's gonna be the same level of problems as the quarterfinals of previous years? Or just in between?

[Mango 070]

I don't know for sure...I'm guessing it will be in between...it's still mechanics only though

[xutantuo]

hey! does anybody know the estimated score of this year,2010? i think it will be ok as long as we don't discuss any of the problems. the problems this year is much harder than last year. Will the cutoff be lower?

[15!!!]

the cutoff is probably similar to past years.
Although the problems were much harder, they are selecting less people.

[xutantuo]

I ACTUALLY THINK THE PEOPLE THEY SELECT WILL REMAIN THE SAME,TOP400_500. LAST YEAR THEY SELECTED 400 Quarterfinal .THIS YEAR THEY WILL SELECT 400 FOR SEMIFINAL. uc, same number,different name.

[pascal12]

Firstly, learn to spell. Don't just use "uc" in the place of you see.
Secondly, don't type in all caps. It does not add anything to your post.
Thirdly, I think the cutoff will be similar to previous years. If lower, it will not be significant, maybe 1 point lower.

[xutantuo]

I thought you could understand what I am talking about. Sorry if I brought you any inconvenience. I know neither the cutoff of 2009 or of 2010. Whatever, we will see.

[Mango 070]

Well, they're not advancing less people even though an intermediate round has been removed...it's virtually the same: 400-600 (this is official: straight from AAPT via e-mail). Considering the questions were harder, relative to past years, I'm guessing the cutoff will be a couple points lower (or maybe this is just me desperately hoping I made it )

[pascal12]

Why in the world are they disallowing discussion of the test for so long? Shouldn't teachers have turned it in by now?

[Mango 070]

When are we allowed to start discussing it? Speculating on the cutoff is fine right?
---The teachers should've turned it in by January 30th: final allowed postmark date.

[cognos599]

pascal12 wrote:

Firstly, learn to spell. Don't just use "uc" in the place of you see.
Secondly, don't type in all caps. It does not add anything to your post.
Thirdly, I think the cutoff will be similar to previous years. If lower, it will not be significant, maybe 1 point lower.

don't be so mean... there is nothing wrong with spelling using shorthand and using caps...

anyway... i think the cutoff will be around 13-13.25. just to be safe, i will not disclose my actual view of the test, but when i emailed AAPT, they said that it would be harder, so i think that the cutoff will be lower.

also, webassign says that we are not allowed to discuss the test until February 20th, but when i emailed the AAPT, they said that we will have the test back by February the 8th. so yeah...

what sucks is that the day that we are supposed to know our score is 1 day before AMC 10/12, so right now, i don't know whether to study for semifinals or AMC 10/12.

[pascal12]

Ok, sorry, I shouldn't have been so mean, but I still stand behind my views. I'm not against the use of shorthand, just the use of spelling such as if this was a text.

Dang, 13 is pretty low, I would have thought maybe 14, high 13's.
And dang, the results get back in less than a week! I am freaking out!

I would study for AMC, because the semifinals are still in March. But do you think that the semifinals are also going to be more difficult than those of previous years?