2020–2021 Program Overview

Welcome to WOOT! This document contains important information regarding the WOOT program. Please read
this document carefully. You must be logged in to the AoPS website (using your AoPS username) to view most
WOOT content.

Home Page

The WOOT Home Page can be reached by hovering over “School” in the green bar at the top of the AoPS website,
clicking on “My Classes,” and then clicking on “WOOT” from the list of classes. This is the page where the WOOT
schedule, handouts, tests, solutions, and transcripts will be posted. Also note that your User ID appears near the
top of this page. Make a note of this number. You’ll need it to submit your assignments.

Message Board

There is a Message Board on the AoPS Forum which is exclusive to WOOT participants. To access it, you can use
the message board tab on the class home page. Alternatel, go to the Forum page, and scroll down to find the
“WOOT” forum in the “Online School” section of the forum. Here you will find important announcements about the
program, all the problems posted as a part of our Problem of the Day service, and other information. You can also
use this Message Board to discuss lecture materials, problems, and other mathematical topics that interest you
with your WOOT classmates.

Open Classroom

There is a Virtual Classroom set aside exclusively for WOOT participants. This classroom is open 24 hours a day.
You can use this classroom to work through problems with your WOOT classmates. To access the classroom,
hover over “School” in the green bar at the top of the AoPS website, then click on “Classroom.” If you are
unfamiliar with the workings of our Virtual Classroom, consult the Documentation and Procedures links in the
upper-right hand corner of the classroom page. We will also cover the procedures in detail in our orientation
sessions at the beginning of September.

Lectures

Each lecture will last two hours and will be held three times on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. You only need to
attend one time, since the same material will be covered all three days. You do not need to notify us ahead of
time which lecture you’ll be attending – simply show up at whichever time is more convenient for you. If you miss
a lecture, or would like to review the material, you can view the transcripts of the lectures after the Friday lecture
has concluded. The transcripts can be viewed from the WOOT Home Page.

Test-taking Strategy Sessions

There will be two test-taking strategy sessions, where we will discuss specific techniques to use when taking the
AIME and USAMO. The AIME session will be held on February 16, and the USAMO session will be held on March
30.

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2020–2021 Program Overview
Problem Sets

After each Friday lecture, a problem set will be made available on the “Homework” tab, providing additional
practice. Problem solutions and discussion will happen on the message board and full solutions will be made
available at the class homepage.

Problem of the Day

The Problem of the Day supplements classes and Practice Olympiads. It is designed to include problems
spanning a very broad range of subjects, concepts, and difficulties, in the same way that actual Olympiads
do.
Problems are posted three times each week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The approximate difficulty
increases during the week. Later weeks will also be more difficult than early weeks.

Tests

There will be eight practice Olympiad tests and three practice AIME-style tests. Each test will be released on a
Wednesday and will due the following Wednesday. Late solutions will not be accepted except in extraordinary
circumstances. See the schedule for the exact dates.
The practice AIME-style tests will follow the same format as the AIME: There will be 15 problems with a 3 hour
time limit, and each answer a 3-digit number from 000 to 999 inclusive. Your score will be the number of correct
answers, with no penalty for wrong answers.
There will be 7 problems on each practice Olympiad, but you may only submit solutions to AT MOST 3 of the
problems. The time limit for each practice Olympiad will be 3 hours. Problems 1 through 3 are for beginning
students, problems 3 through 5 are for intermediate students, and problems 5 through 7 are for advanced
students. Do not mix and match problem groups; only submit solutions to 1–3, or 3–5, or 5–7. Here are the
guidelines for these categories:
Beginning Students with little or no Olympiad experience; students who typically expect
to score 5–8 on the AIME contest.

Intermediate Students with some Olympiad experience; students who typically expect to
score 9+ on the AIME contest.

Advanced Students with significant Olympiad experience; students who have placed highly
on a national olympiad, or have attended the IMO.
Please note that these are very general and informal guidelines. We leave it to each student to decide which
group he or she feels most comfortable in – in particular we expect very few students to choose the “Advanced”
group. We will post some sample tests to help you make this decision. You should choose your group before you
see the test, so that your decision is not influenced by the type of problems.
You should take each test under “Olympiad conditions,” meaning that each test should be completed in one
sitting, with handwritten solutions (just like on an actual olympiad exam). Take the test using only the resources
that would be available to you on an actual olympiad, meaning you can use scrap paper, a ruler, a compass, etc.,
but no calculators and no reference materials.

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2020–2021 Program Overview
Submitting Your Solutions

Detailed instructions for submitting solutions will be included with each assignment. Note that you will only
submit solutions for four of the practice olympiads.

Receiving Your Feedback

For the graded practice olympiads, the solutions will be graded, and your feedback will be available about 1
month after the assignment is due. (Grading is a time-consuming process, and we want to give each and every
test a thorough evaluation, so we appreciate your understanding that the feedback will not be immediate.) For
the AIME-style tests, you will only be given a score out of 15.
Four of the practice olympiads (1, 3, 6, 7) will be graded. The other four (2, 4, 5, 8) will instead be discussed in a
classroom session led by a veteran WOOT instructor on the due date. We also encourage you to discuss your
solutions with your peers on the message board.

Drop Date

The drop date for WOOT is September 13. If you drop WOOT on or before that date, you will receive a full refund.
You can drop by clicking on the “Click here to drop class” link on the WOOT home page.

Questions?

If you have any questions at any time about the program, you can post them on the WOOT Message Board or
send an e-mail to woot@[Link].

© 2020 AoPS Incorporated 3

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