Joining an ARML team
Team selection varies from state to state.
Minnesota
Minnesota sends two teams to ARML each year, with the Gold and Maroon teams usually competing in divisions A and B, respectively.
Roughly 35 students are invited to ARML practices, which take place on three consecutive Saturdays in May. There is no practice Memorial Day weekend. Invitations to the ARML team are extended to the top 10 state scorers on the AMC12, the top 10 regular-season scorers on the Minnesota High School Math League, and the top 10 scorers on the Invitational Event at the statewide math league tournament (held in March).
Since these lists tend to overlap quite a bit, invitations are usually given to students "further down" these lists until enough invites have been given to fill two 15-person teams.
In addition, an extra 5 or so younger students (typically in grades 8 through 10) are invited to be ARML "students in training". They may or may not go to ARML, but often serve as alternates (in the event that other students cannot attend). The expectation is that a student in training will learn from the practices, and the following year will be on one of the two teams. Since the creation of the AMC8 and AMC10 exams, the top scorers from these exams have typically been invited to ARML practices, either as team members or students in training.
Usually at least one student in training is invited to go to ARML. This is to prevent a last-minute no-show (due to illness or emergency, for example) from crippling one of the teams.
The 2007 MN ARML team has already been selected.
San Francisco Bay Area
Any student is welcome to join the SFBA ARML team. Practices are held every Sunday at Stanford University, usually from 2:00 until 4:30 or 5:00. Coaches also set up practices at Berkeley on some weeks for students who live closer to there than Stanford. Practices begin in mid-April and run until the weekend before Memorial Day. Team placement is determined sometime in May by a combination of AMC/AIME scores and practice ARML tests.
To join the team and receive announcements about practices, join the "SFBA-ARML" Yahoo group. You can also send an AoPS PM to Sly Si for more information. If you're a Stanford student and interested in coaching, send a PM to Sly Si.
The April 22 practice at Stanford has been changed to 3:15-5:30.
South Carolina
To join the SC All-State Team, one must take a preliminary exam administered through their school. For more information, please contact ronskimomo@hotmail.com.
The preliminary exam is composed of 25 questions (non multiple choice), and is usually composed of easy to mid range AMC-12 level questions. From this exam, approximately 50-60 (in 2006 it was 49) of the top scorers from the state are selected into the South Carolina All State Mathematics Team. The qualifying floor this year was 11 out of the 25 questions. After an individual is accepted into the SC All State Team, he or she is invited to one or two ARML practices which are usually composed of individual tests, team tests, and a power round test.
Southern California
The Southern California team is open to residents of the following Southern California counties: Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, San Bernardino, and Riverside. The organization fields three teams (45 students) and competes at the western ARML site in Las Vegas.
Practices are held throughout the school year, approximately once a month, on the campus of California State University, Long Beach. Practices are normally held on Saturday afternoons. In addition, there is a Santa Barbara area group that meets and practices in Goleta and becomes part of the Southern California team.
Team selection is based on all of the following criteria:
- Attendence at practice sessions.
- Performance on problems at practice sessions.
- Performance at ARML itself in previous years.
- Performance on AMC and AIME, including current and previous years.
- Performance at CSULB Math Day at the Beach, a contest held in March.
The coach is Dr. Kent Merryfield, a professor at CSULB. His AoPS user name is Kent Merryfield. Please contact him for further information.
