MAST

Mathematical Advancement by Self Training

Notice

We are migrating off of this website soon.

Introduction

The Mathematical Advancement by Self Training program (MAST) is targeted towards AIME qualifiers who want to do better on the AIME.

Application

Announcement: No new applications are being accepted. Please come back in a few months for the second season.

If I do not respond to your application within 24 hours, please email me at proofprogram@gmail.com and let me know because something has gone very wrong.

I called this a Diagnostic instead of a Qualifying Test or an Application because it's not supposed to be scary. This is just a way for me to gauge a few things.

  • If taking this class would benefit you.

  • Your strong/weak subjects and knowledge/knowledge gaps.

  • As much as I hate to say this, the quickest way to roughly gauge your general skill level is to know your contest scores.

  • Score distributions will give me a good idea of what units to recommend.

This is also a way for you to learn a couple of things.

  • If taking this class would benefit you. (This is so important I'm saying it twice.)

  • If you like the style.

  • What you need to work on, either in MAST or some other class.

  • I don't bite.

Once students have been accepted to MAST, they leave the diagnostic out for all future re-applications. Students may send problems to be considered for a diagnostic, if they wish.

Also, I recommend against spending too much time on the diagnostic (1-2 weeks of serious thinking should be sufficient). At this point I will accept you if you are qualified for the program because I have enough time to accept everyone right now, and your time is probably better spent working through the units (at a minimum).

Guidelines

  • LaTeX your solutions. Google is a good place to learn it, and Overleaf is a good place to compile it.

  • You do not need to write a lot about yourself when I ask you to write about yourself. A couple of sentences is sufficient.

  • Fill out as much as you remember, but if you don't remember a contest score or the score distribution (particularly for AMCs), it's not a big deal.