AIME

It seems I got a 12, which means that I'll likely be taking the USAMO this year.

I didn't like this AIME very much though. Here is my analysis:

1: This problem was essentially testing the knowledge of well-known formulas, which #1 should definitely not do.

2, 3, 4: I realize that these are near the beginning of the test, but they are seriously too easy for AIME. All three of them are completely trivial.

5, 6: Nice problems.

7: Also completely trivial, assuming sufficient experience with this kind of stuff.

8: I don't have much to say about this one

9: my favorite problem on this AIME; it actually required some playing around more than just bashing things out.

10: The first one I got wrong. Although this seems to be a mindless bash, there is a nice bijective solution. But it's still possible to mindlessly bash.

11: So horrible... again, a mindless bash.

12: Apparently this is well-known, but I'm not sure. I got this one wrong too.

13: This was so easy to make a mistake on. (luckily, I didn't.) It was also way too easy for a #13.

14: What seems to be the most commonly used method on this problem was guessing and checking. And it's problem 14.

15: I don't know. Apparently this can be solved by guessing $AM = 10$ and verifying that it works.

APMO

So APMO was last Monday, about a week ago. It was the only real proof-style competition I've done since MOP, so I didn't really know how well it would go, despite the fact that I had done some APMO problems. Regardless, I was happy that I could just sit down and do math.

LaTeX

I will sometimes post math here. Generally, my math-related posts will consist of a problem that I have solved or created. Sometimes I'll just write about something I find interesting.

Because it gets difficult to write things like \[\frac{a+b^n}{z} = x\] without using typesetting, I thought it best I add LaTeX to this blog. I am currently using the second Google result for "LaTeX on Blogspot," but I will change that if I find something better.

Hello, Blogspot!

Hello. After constant encouragement, I have created a blog on Blogspot.

You may have noticed that the first thing I did after I created this blog was not to create any actual content, but to create the style sheets. I realize that some people may ask whether style sheets are actually that important. To this I reply: they are. I don't consider myself an expert on website design, but I find that I tend toward blogs which have an unobtrusive color scheme. Also, I want my blog to reach across the entire page rather than a 60% section of it in the middle.

Additionally, this blog is actually a continuation of my blog here, so I actually have written content -- I didn't go straight toward the CSS. But AoPS blogs are currently pretty limited. Also, I have found that my blog runs slowly, so I have decided to move it.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could leave a comment with suggestions about what I should change in my CSS.

Thank you, and goodbye.