Eric Hopkins Achieves Perfect Score on
AMC 8 Exam
Eric Hopkins, an 8th grader at Bolivar Middle School in Bolivar,
Missouri, was among four students recognized by Missouri Governor Matt
Blunt on April 11 for achieving a perfect score on the AMC 8 Exam given
in November 2006 . "The AMC 8 is a 25 question, 40 minute
multiple choice examination in junior high school (middle school)
mathematics designed to promote the development and enhancement of
problem solving skills." (taken from the AMC 8 website at http://www.unl.edu/amc/e-exams/e4-amc08/amc8.shtml).
The contest is sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.
According to the website, 2973 students from 50 schools took the exam
in Missouri. The average score achieved was 9.91 and the average
high score at a school was 17.96. These four students achieved a
perfect score of 25 (only 15 students in Missouri achieved a score of
22-24). In the United States, this exam was given to 132,909
students at 1965 schools. Only 128 students in the United States
(0.1%) achieved a perfect score.
From the AMC teacher information packet, “The contest, which covers
Middle School mathematics, is given at participating schools. Its
purpose is to spur interest in mathematics and develop talent through
the excitement of friendly competition at problem solving in a timed
format. The AMC 8, first offered in 1985, is an annual project
sponsored by The Mathematical Association of America, and is located at
the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Contest is given across
the U.S.A., Canada, and in many schools abroad. The AMC 8 contest
can lead to other more selective math contests, even all the way to the
United States of America team sent to the International Mathematical
Olympiad, the premier international high school level mathematical
problem solving contest. The real rewards come from challenging
each student with mathematics that is new, different, and “outside of
the box.” The problems on the contest are difficult, but designed
to be within the reach of students. Even so, if a student managed to
solve only one or two problems, you can consider that satisfactory,
because these problems are meant to be more challenging than students
routinely encounter in their mathematics courses.”
In the photo below are the four students that were recognized.
Governor Matt Blunt is on the left and Eric Hopkins is on
the right.
