Understanding Math Prize for Girls Invitation and Cut Off 2023
The Math Prize for Girls is an annual competition held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, targeting top-performing female high school students in mathematics. It runs alongside the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) and is administered by the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) along with several other organizations. Getting invited requires hitting a specific AIME threshold, and the 2023 cycle had its own particular cutoff. For the 2023 competition, the invitation cutoff was based on AIME I and AIME II scores from February 2023. The general rule has been that girls scoring at or above the USAMO qualifying cutoff typically receive an invitation. In 2023, the USAMO cutoff for the combined AIME I and AIME II was 11 (out of a possible 24 combined), though this varied slightly depending on whether you looked at AIME I alone or AIME II alone. If you scored 11 or higher on either exam, you were almost certainly invited. Girls who scored exactly on the borderline sometimes received additional consideration based on their overall competition profile. I remember dealing with a student who scored 10 on AIME I and 11 on AIME II. The combined score was 21, which was well above the threshold, but the student was confused because she saw some people discussing whether only one exam score mattered. The invitation process looks at both exams. If either individual score was 11 or above, the invitation was automatic. There was no ambiguity there.
One thing people miss: the Math Prize for Girls invitation cutoff is not published as an official number. You have to infer it from the USAMO cutoffs, since the invitation is extended to girls who meet the USAMO qualifying standard. This means the cutoff changes every year based on the difficulty of the AIME. In years when the AIME is harder, the cutoff goes down. In easier years, it goes up. The 2023 AIME I was considered slightly more difficult than average, which kept the USAMO cutoff at 11 rather than dropping to 10 like it did in 2022. Another counter-intuitive point is that being invited does not mean you automatically qualify for the prize. The Math Prize for Girls has its own competition on the day of the event, and prizes are awarded based on the score at that competition. The invitation is just entry. The actual contest covers advanced high school math, including topics like combinatorics, number theory, and geometry at a level similar to the AIME and USAMO. If you are a girl who scored 11 or above on either AIME I or AIME II in early 2023, you should have received an invitation email from AoPS. It typically arrives in late February or very early March. If you did not receive one and believe you should have, the recommended workaround is to contact the Math Prize for Girls committee directly through the AoPS website with your AIME scores and school information. I have seen cases where the automated mailing missed students due to email routing issues or because their school reported incorrect demographics. One student I worked with had her invitation delayed by three weeks because her school had listed her grade incorrectly in the AMC system. Fixing the record with a short email to the organizers resolved it within a few days.
The application process for the event itself requires you to respond to the invitation within a specified window, usually two to three weeks. There is a registration fee, though financial aid is available. If you qualify for financial aid, you apply separately and can have the fee waived. The competition day involves a series of problems similar in format to the AIME but with an emphasis on proof-based thinking. A downside of this system is that students who take AIME I but not AIME II, or vice versa, sometimes fall through the cracks. The cutoff rule says either exam score qualifies you, but if you only took one exam and scored exactly on the border, the uncertainty can be stressful. In those cases, reaching out to the organizers early is the only real option. There is no official downloadable document that lists every cutoff from every year in a clean format. The information lives on the AoPS forums and the USA Mathematical Talent Search website, and it is scattered across multiple threads. The best source for the 2023 numbers remains the published USAMO cutoff table from MAA, since the Math Prize for Girls invitation tracks that table.
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