2017 AIME II reflection notes from H

AIME 2017 II — Reflection Notes from H

Correct: #8, #10, #11, #12, #13

Had trouble / wrong: #9, #14, #15

Need Review / Unclear:

#9 – The “given that” statement kind of confused me. I wasn’t sure how to use it / what it was trying to tell me, so I got stuck early.

#14 – No idea how to start. I couldn’t visualize the setup, so I didn’t know what to do next.

#15 – Tried using generating functions, but it became too complicated (too many moving parts). Need a cleaner setup / approach.

2017 AIME I reflection notes from H

Correct: #8, #9, #11, #12, #14

Had trouble / wrong: #10, #13, #15

Need Review / Unclear:

#10 – Tried looking at this geometrically, but couldn’t find the right cyclic quadrilateral / setup (kept thinking about points like z₁, z₂, z₃, etc.). Need to learn how to “see” the key circle configuration faster.

#13 – I knew Q(m) would eventually become 1, but I didn’t realize it would happen at such a small value of m. This could have been done with quicker mental casework / checking small m first.

#15 – Tried using trig, but it got very complicated (too many variables). Need to practice spotting a cleaner non-trig / inequality setup sooner.

2016 AIME II reflection from H

Correct: #8, #9, #11, #12, #13, #14

Had trouble / wrong: #10, #15

Reflection / What happened:

#10 – Tried using no trig (just similar triangles + Ptolemy). Computations got messy, and I wasn’t fully confident the setup was correct.

#15 – I got pretty far into the official solution, but the step right before multiplying by Σ_i=1ⁿ(1-a_i) didn’t feel motivated to me at first (why multiply by that?). It makes more sense now, but I need to see this trick more often.

Notes:

• Cauchy–Schwarz is the right tool here and the method is clean, but it’s very tricky in execution.
• I understand the solution after reading it, but I need more problems like this to become consistent.

2016 AIME I reflection notes from H

2016 AIME I — Reflection Notes from H

Correct: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #8, #11, #13, #14

Wrong (with notes):

#6 – My solution attempt did not include angle-chasing — that was fun/confusing for me.

#9 – Seems very tricky with a lot of variables — not sure how to even create an expression for the area using 3 variables.

#10 – Again, computation seems difficult/complex — how to simplify such problems?

#12 – Diagram seemed very complex. Additionally, the solution didn’t fully make sense. One thing I didn’t know is the radical axis theorem, which seems important.

#15 – I figured out the importance of multiple II’s and made some substitutions as such, but solutions seem to be lucky through a lot of assumptions.

2015 AIME I reflection notes from H

2015 AIME I — Reflection Notes from H

Had trouble / wrong: #9, #13, #14

Need Review / Unclear:

#9 – Got lost in casework (time sink).
#13 – Could not simplify easily; forgot identities.
#14 – Wasn’t able to visualize graph / trapezoids; need to practice these weird function graphing problems.