cahn

Yeah, MAA also uses EdVistas, which was why it confused me when the kids said that Physics Olympiad did that but were able to lock down browers. Makes a lot more sense that they were just... wrong about that! :)

Oh yeah, that's right, I remember now that when A. did/does MAP testing he had to download the browser and they have a whole thing where the week before the exam they have to check that it worked and there was some weird display thing that we had to change on his computer to get it to work. Now, he's had the same computer for several years so once we fixed it the first time it was fine, but I just got him a new one because the old one is not working so well anymore and this reminds me that we'll have to go through this all over again now...

Heh, I have to admit that I did make USAMO my senior year, but it was honestly kind of a fluke because the AHSME was uncharacteristically easy that year and I happened to do really well on it, which offset not being great at AIME-level problems. (Then I got to stare at the USAMO paper for hours! I'm not sure I even understood the questions, lol.) And I actually did quite well with Physics Olympiad too -- though you have to remember, in both cases, this was decades ago (I think I'm at least a decade older than you?) when it was much much easier to do well at these things with nothing/no training other than a couple of years of math acceleration and an admittedly stellar physics class (both in terms of the teacher and of the other students -- my year was for whatever reason stuffed full of crazy amazing kids which I think was really great as we all kind of bounced off and inspired each other -- do you have years like that as a teacher? At E's school it felt like last year had all the amazing seniors, and this year there's maybe like one kid who is good but not amazing like the ones last year... We'll see how E's year shapes up; I get the feeling from what I know about her friends that they're going to be another high-octane year. But we'll see, they're only sophomores and trying to find their way.)