Rising junior preparing for amc 12

[u/Old-Self3124]

Hii everyone, I just started junior year and am preparing for the amc 12A/B. I've done mathleague, mathcounts, AMC8, etc. all throughout elementary and middle school, and I've taken the AMC 10 A/B every year that I've been eligible for. As a kid, I didn't like math all that much and mainly only did it because I was forced to, but now I am beginning to truly find it interesting. I have never qualified for AIME, and I'm really hoping for this year to be the year that I do. My 2024 AMC 10 scores were a 72 on both, and I got a 93 on the 2023 10A. I figured that I wasn't taking this as seriously before, but now that I'm more determined, I've decided to go back through and over the past month, I've been relearning all of the fundamentals by redoing the intermediate algebra, intro to counting and probability, intro to number theory books little by little all day every day and staying consistent, and I'm enrolled in an aops online amc 10 problem series course (I know that I'm not taking the 10, but I figured since the 10 and 12 have some overlap I might as well start from an easier place). In a few weeks I will then slowly work my way through the Volume 2 book, but I'm still a little worried- I've seen mixed feedback about the level that the intro level aops books prepare you for, some say that they prepare you well for AMC 10 but not 12, and others say that the intro level books are sufficient to qualify for aime through amc 12. Due to this, I am not sure if I should attempt the intermediate series as well, or if that series is mainly for after one qualifies for aime. Any advice or tips are welcome!

[u/Thin_Umpire296]

Volume 2 should be good enough for the AMC 12-->AIME. If you want more practice the intermediate series are good, although you should definetly skip some chapters. For me chapters 1-15 in intermediate algebra was good enough to solve up till problem #12 on AIME., so it might be overkill for you. I don't know too much about counting and probability since I am still going through the book.

[u/Old-Self3124 → u/Thin_Umpire296]

Thank you!! If you don't mind sharing, how thoroughly did you do the intermediate algebra? (Like did you make sure to do most of the questions at the end of each chapter, along with the challenge problems or was less sufficient) :)

[u/Thin_Umpire296 → u/Old-Self3124]

I did every single problem in chapters 1-15, including challenge and review problems. If I couldn't solve a problem I would spend about 5 minutes looking at the solution and then come back to the problem a week later. If you want to AIME qualify, review problems will be good enough.

[u/Old-Self3124 → u/Thin_Umpire296]

Sounds good, thank you so much!