Welcome back to our email series guiding you through the new AMC Platform in preparation for the AMC 8 on Jan. 17-23! Last week we shared how to enroll your students in our new system, which is required for participation regardless of the format you plan to administer. 

This email will focus on how you can prepare for the competition after your students are on the platform, including securing your paper competition materials. This information includes some changes from the AMC 10/12 administration procedures.

Competition Booklets and student Answer Sheets are now available for you to print from the AMC Platform. You must approve your students in the portal before the AMC Platform can generate a unique, barcoded Answer Sheet for each student. No need to have them fill out scantrons in advance this year! 

When you navigate to the Competition Administration Portal from the main dashboard, you will see “Print Answer Sheets” in the right column:

When you click on the “Print Answer Sheets” button, the PDF of Answer Sheets will automatically download from your browser, ready for you to print. Student names will appear at the top of each one.

On the same page, click on “Competition Booklet” to find this year’s competition booklet in English, French, and Spanish. Print as many as you need for all of your students taking the competition in paper form. As a reminder, we will not be mailing out booklets this year.

Practice makes perfect! Testing your tech in advance will make for a smoother Competition Day. 

On the AMC Dashboard, Competition Managers can click on “Practice Competitions” in the leftmost column to preview former competitions in both digital and print (PDF) form. 

Print & Scan Administration:

We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the scanner you will be using and check that it gives you the option to scan the file in at least 300 dpi as a PDF, JPEG, or black and white TIFF or TIF. (The PDF and JPEG can be in color, but TIFF files must be scanned in black and white). Practice scanning in a sheet of paper in this required file size.

Your students can also preview the digital experience. Share this link to the AMC Student Portal with your participants and ask them to click on “Click here for Practice Competitions" at the bottom of the login frame. (The Student Portal link can also be found on the "Official Digital Competition" page in your portal).

Students can then click on any of the previous AMC links in this portal to simulate taking the Digital Competition. 

We highly encourage this step in order to confirm the technology works and ensure that students know what to expect on Competition Day. If you encounter any technical difficulties, please email amctech@maa.org. 

Need More Support?

AMC Platform Training Webinar: Join us for a Zoom walkthrough on Jan. 11 at 5:30 pm ET to practice administration steps in the new system with our AMC team. Register here.

Teacher’s Manual: The AMC 8 Teacher’s Manual has been updated to reflect changes implemented after the AMC 10/12; access this latest version on the AMC 8 page.

Next Series Email: We’ll see you on Wednesday for Part 3 of the series, which will discuss how to administer the competitions in both formats with the new system, including a new feature being introduced since the AMC 10/12!

Questions? For AMC registration, policy, and payment, contact amcinfo@maa.org or 800-527-3690. For technical issues, contact amctech@maa.org.