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The second date of the American Invitational Math Exam is Thursday, March 18 between 1:30 pm ET and 5:30 pm ET.

During the first date (which was last Wednesday), there were a number of questions from the AIME which were posted, and answered/hinted, on this website. I'm hoping it might be possible to prevent this from occurring on the second date.

So, I have a couple of requests/questions:

  • Along the lines of the PROMYS post, I'm politely asking people to keep an eye out for contest-looking problems posted during this time by people who seem only interested in numerical answers. I don't mean to say "don't post on math.SE during these four hours", but I figure if someone runs into a suspicious question, they might like to be aware.

  • I know the AIME questions ahead of time (I was one of the board members), so I may be looking through math.SE to monitor for posted AIME questions. I'd like to know what the procedure should be if I encounter one. Of course I would flag the question. Would it also be permitted or useful to make an "answer" to the effect of "this problem is from AIME 2021, please don't give help for a bit?". (I am not sure what the turnaround time for flagged questions would be.)

[Relevant context about myself: I am the co-editor-in-chief for the USAMO, the competition one step above the AIME. I am likely to be back in April with a similar request for the USA math olympiad --- scheduled April 13 & 14.]

Edit to add: Xander mentioned the contest problem policy, which is good to know. The tricky thing here is that the AIME problems won't be available to the general public until the day after the exam. So I'm curious what I might need to differently here.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for posting this! $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Mar 13, 2021 at 17:40
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    $\begingroup$ FYI, there is a policy on contest problems. Raise a flag, and we'll try to deal with it as quickly as possible. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Mar 13, 2021 at 17:48
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, @XanderHenderson. One caveat: the AIME problems aren't available to the public until the day after the exam. Would I need to proceed differently? (This seems an important enough detail that I will edit my question to explicitly note this.) $\endgroup$
    – Evan Chen
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:10
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    $\begingroup$ @EvanChen If you are who I think you are, I think we can trust you. How do you feel about napkins? $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:14
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    $\begingroup$ @XanderHenderson Ha! :) One day I'll get to finishing those TO DO chapters, maybe... $\endgroup$
    – Evan Chen
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:17
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    $\begingroup$ Yeah, just raise a flag and let us know. Depending on the time of day, it may take more or less time to get to it. You can also try posting in CURED. Only a moderator can invoke the contest problem policy, but most contest problems asked on this site are of pretty low quality, so folk there are likely to be willing to help. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Mar 13, 2021 at 18:22
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    $\begingroup$ Is a seemingly unmotivated step to convert the answer to a non-negative integer reason to suspect a question of being from the AIME? For example, "... equals $A+B\sqrt{C}$ where $A$, $B$, and $C$ are integers and $C$ is square-free. Find $|AB+C|$" $\endgroup$
    – aschepler
    Mar 15, 2021 at 17:11
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    $\begingroup$ What if people try to reword the questions? $\endgroup$
    – user596778
    Mar 16, 2021 at 1:34
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    $\begingroup$ I see that a user just tried to cheat on main with a question, Evan. Glad you caught it. Also it was flagged. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Mar 18, 2021 at 20:17

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