Answers to 2026 American Math Competition test leaked and sold on e-commerce sites
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The listing for the answers was priced at 100 yuan (S$18.80) on one e-commerce platform.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SINGAPORE – The answers to a test of a prestigious mathematics competition have been leaked, and listed for sale on e-commerce and social media platforms.
Answers to the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) 8 test was found to be leaked on several Chinese e-commerce sites, and at least one social media platform, reported Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao.
The listing for the answers to the test, being held from Jan 22 to Jan 30 in the US, was priced at 100 yuan (S$18.80) on one of the e-commerce platforms, according to a screengrab provided to Lianhe Zaobao.
The AMC 8 is taken by over 30,000 students, aged 14 and below, worldwide. The test is made up of 25 multiple-choice questions with a 40-minute time limit and must be completed without the use of a calculator. The questions are crafted to prioritise mathematical thinking and logical reasoning over pure mathematical calculations, according to AMC website.
Several tuition centres in Singapore provide arrangements for students to take the test here. The test scores can then be used in their submission in the Direct-School-Admission (DSA) exercise.
Other variations of the test, AMC 10, also for those aged 14 and below, and AMC 12 for students aged 18 and below, are prerequisite competitions used by the US to select participants for the International Mathematical Olympiad. The tests are also often a crucial component in foreign students’ applications to some American universities.
The AMC 8 test and its variants have been organised in Singapore for over 20 years.
A student who is able to answer 17 or 18 of the 25 questions correctly is thought to have scored in the top 5 per cent worldwide, said Ms Zhou Xiuping, the organiser of AMC 8 in Singapore and South-east Asia, excluding Philippines.
She told Lianhe Zaobao that answers to the tests have been leaked in previous years. To prevent this, organisers have attempted to tweak questions slightly in each region. This was done for instance, by rearranging the order of multiple-choice answers.
She added that despite this, it remains difficult to eliminate entirely the leakage of test answers.
In 2026, two local schools participated in the AMC 8, as part of their Integrated Programme. Other local participants are from international schools and tuition centres.
About 2,000 students in Singaproe registered for AMC 10 and AMC 12 in November 2025.
The Straits Times has contacted official test centres here for more information.
