Admission
Applications are received throughout the year. The circle admits a small number of pupils who mean to make mathematics, theoretical computer science or physics their life’s work, and who are ready for sustained and demanding study.
Candidates and their families are asked to read every word of this page: how well its principles are understood is the first thing the circle observes. Enquiries whose answers are given here will not receive a separate reply.
A mathematical monastery: a classical apprenticeship, in which dedication and immersion count for more than native talent or early pedigree.
No more than twenty-four pupils study in the circle at any one time, and a place cannot always be offered at once. Every applicant is told promptly how matters stand.
A place falls vacant in only two ways: when a pupil completes the programme, which takes years, or when a pupil is withdrawn for want of the rate of adaptation and the cognitive endurance that the work demands.
An open door, a deep room¶
Not a filter of access, but a filter of attrition.
Most programmes place their filter at the front door, in an entrance examination. The circle reverses the arrangement. Its door stands open, but the room within is deep and moves quickly: everything in the curriculum is proved and constructed from first principles, and the rigour and difficulty of the work increase substantially as the course proceeds. Continuation therefore demands sustained effort, time and will, and the responsibility for selection rests with the pupil.
The circle does not test what a candidate already knows; it observes the rate at which the candidate adapts and the endurance brought to what is new. Where others select for talent by examination, the circle selects for character and for a consuming devotion to the subject. It does not seek pupils prepared for tests; it admits those who wish to cultivate a scientific and mathematical temperament. For this reason the first letter of the circle’s name stands for Attrition.
Those who seek tricks and shortcuts for competitions should look elsewhere. Pupils of the circle have been honoured in the principal competitions (the AMC, the AIME and the USAMO; the tournaments of Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton and Caltech; the UKMT challenges and both rounds of the British Mathematical Olympiad; the European Girls’ and the International Mathematical Olympiads), often with near-perfect scores, places on the distinguished honour roll, honourable mentions and distinctions. They are not here for that purpose. They are here for the mathematization of thought.
Who may apply¶
Pupils before university, from grade VII onwards, who wish to pursue mathematics as a vocation or to begin research early. What is looked for is not a record of prizes but the willingness to keep working when the mathematics is hard.
Before grade VII¶
In the elementary years, the parents, the child and the teacher have a single task: to increase the child’s capacity for mathematical endurance, the time a child can stay with a hard problem, and to keep from the child any notion of success or failure, letting the journey and the joy of the work alone be the guide.
A child who means to join at the start of grade VII should by then be at home in Kiselev’s Arithmetic and in the first part of his Algebra, in Valery Manokhin’s English translation. For these years the circle recommends Problem Solving in Mathematics, Grades 3–6, by Alfred S. Posamentier and Stephen Krulik, and Math Circle by the Bay: Topics for Grades 1–5, by Laura Givental, Maria Nemirovskaya and Ilya Zakharevich; and, for the last of them, Mathematical Circle Diaries, Year 2: Complete Curriculum for Grades 6 to 8, by Anna Burago. A family may write to the circle during the child’s sixth-grade year.
The length of study¶
No pupil is admitted for less than two years. Pupils resident in India are admitted for no less than three years, and preferably for longer: among them the circle admits only those who mean to pursue research, and no shorter commitment allows the academic and intellectual formation on which a career in mathematics depends. Applications for a shorter period are not considered.
What the circle does not offer¶
The circle offers no programme of purely competitive training, and it is not suited to pupils whose interest lies chiefly in the engineering sciences. It offers a mathematical education in an institutional setting, and nothing narrower.
How to apply¶
Write to apply@ammoc.org, or to the director at golovanov@ammoc.org, stating:
- 1the pupil’s present grade and place of residence;
- 2the mathematics studied outside school;
- 3the reasons for wishing to join;
- 4the hours available each week, the seminars taking from twenty-four hours a month in grades VII to IX to fifty or more for senior pupils, with written work besides;
- 5the intended length of study, no less than two years, or three for pupils resident in India;
- 6any distinctions in competitions;
- 7in the last two years of school, the plans for university.
The admission seminar¶
No examination is set at admission. The applicant joins a seminar already in progress and, after three to five classes, is told whether a place is offered. What is observed is the rate at which the pupil adapts, and the endurance brought to difficult problems. Seminars are formed by time zone and by mathematical preparation, not by school grade.
Fees¶
The fee is twenty US dollars for each hour of seminar, payable in US or Canadian dollars, in euros or in Indian rupees, by PayPal or by bank transfer. Only the seminars attended are charged, and the fee is not open to negotiation. Finances, however, have never been a bar to admission: pupils of evident ability whose families could not meet the fee have been admitted on full scholarship.
Attendance and continuation¶
Admitted pupils do not choose their courses: every part of the programme is compulsory, and the schedule is fixed. A pupil whose work falls short is given a single period of two months in which to recover; a pupil who is asked to leave is not readmitted. Where a pupil or a family is found to pursue a different aim, such as training directed chiefly at competitions, the circle will end its engagement.
The circle strongly encourages applications from those who look towards an academic life: undergraduate study, the doctorate and, in time, a professorship.
Correspondence¶
Admission
Applications are received throughout the year. The circle admits a small number of pupils who mean to make mathematics, theoretical computer science or physics their life’s work, and who are ready for sustained and demanding study.
Candidates and their families are asked to read every word of this page: how well its principles are understood is the first thing the circle observes. Enquiries whose answers are given here will not receive a separate reply.
A mathematical monastery: a classical apprenticeship, in which dedication and immersion count for more than native talent or early pedigree.
No more than twenty-four pupils study in the circle at any one time, and a place cannot always be offered at once. Every applicant is told promptly how matters stand.
A place falls vacant in only two ways: when a pupil completes the programme, which takes years, or when a pupil is withdrawn for want of the rate of adaptation and the cognitive endurance that the work demands.
An open door, a deep room¶
Not a filter of access, but a filter of attrition.
Most programmes place their filter at the front door, in an entrance examination. The circle reverses the arrangement. Its door stands open, but the room within is deep and moves quickly: everything in the curriculum is proved and constructed from first principles, and the rigour and difficulty of the work increase substantially as the course proceeds. Continuation therefore demands sustained effort, time and will, and the responsibility for selection rests with the pupil.
The circle does not test what a candidate already knows; it observes the rate at which the candidate adapts and the endurance brought to what is new. Where others select for talent by examination, the circle selects for character and for a consuming devotion to the subject. It does not seek pupils prepared for tests; it admits those who wish to cultivate a scientific and mathematical temperament. For this reason the first letter of the circle’s name stands for Attrition.
Those who seek tricks and shortcuts for competitions should look elsewhere. Pupils of the circle have been honoured in the principal competitions (the AMC, the AIME and the USAMO; the tournaments of Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton and Caltech; the UKMT challenges and both rounds of the British Mathematical Olympiad; the European Girls’ and the International Mathematical Olympiads), often with near-perfect scores, places on the distinguished honour roll, honourable mentions and distinctions. They are not here for that purpose. They are here for the mathematization of thought.
Who may apply¶
Pupils before university, from grade VII onwards, who wish to pursue mathematics as a vocation or to begin research early. What is looked for is not a record of prizes but the willingness to keep working when the mathematics is hard.
Before grade VII¶
In the elementary years, the parents, the child and the teacher have a single task: to increase the child’s capacity for mathematical endurance, the time a child can stay with a hard problem, and to keep from the child any notion of success or failure, letting the journey and the joy of the work alone be the guide.
A child who means to join at the start of grade VII should by then be at home in Kiselev’s Arithmetic and in the first part of his Algebra, in Valery Manokhin’s English translation. For these years the circle recommends Problem Solving in Mathematics, Grades 3–6, by Alfred S. Posamentier and Stephen Krulik, and Math Circle by the Bay: Topics for Grades 1–5, by Laura Givental, Maria Nemirovskaya and Ilya Zakharevich; and, for the last of them, Mathematical Circle Diaries, Year 2: Complete Curriculum for Grades 6 to 8, by Anna Burago. A family may write to the circle during the child’s sixth-grade year.
The length of study¶
No pupil is admitted for less than two years. Pupils resident in India are admitted for no less than three years, and preferably for longer: among them the circle admits only those who mean to pursue research, and no shorter commitment allows the academic and intellectual formation on which a career in mathematics depends. Applications for a shorter period are not considered.
What the circle does not offer¶
The circle offers no programme of purely competitive training, and it is not suited to pupils whose interest lies chiefly in the engineering sciences. It offers a mathematical education in an institutional setting, and nothing narrower.
How to apply¶
Write to apply@ammoc.org, or to the director at golovanov@ammoc.org, stating:
- 1the pupil’s present grade and place of residence;
- 2the mathematics studied outside school;
- 3the reasons for wishing to join;
- 4the hours available each week, the seminars taking from twenty-four hours a month in grades VII to IX to fifty or more for senior pupils, with written work besides;
- 5the intended length of study, no less than two years, or three for pupils resident in India;
- 6any distinctions in competitions;
- 7in the last two years of school, the plans for university.
The admission seminar¶
No examination is set at admission. The applicant joins a seminar already in progress and, after three to five classes, is told whether a place is offered. What is observed is the rate at which the pupil adapts, and the endurance brought to difficult problems. Seminars are formed by time zone and by mathematical preparation, not by school grade.
Fees¶
The fee is twenty US dollars for each hour of seminar, payable in US or Canadian dollars, in euros or in Indian rupees, by PayPal or by bank transfer. Only the seminars attended are charged, and the fee is not open to negotiation. Finances, however, have never been a bar to admission: pupils of evident ability whose families could not meet the fee have been admitted on full scholarship.
Attendance and continuation¶
Admitted pupils do not choose their courses: every part of the programme is compulsory, and the schedule is fixed. A pupil whose work falls short is given a single period of two months in which to recover; a pupil who is asked to leave is not readmitted. Where a pupil or a family is found to pursue a different aim, such as training directed chiefly at competitions, the circle will end its engagement.
The circle strongly encourages applications from those who look towards an academic life: undergraduate study, the doctorate and, in time, a professorship.