Art of Problem Solving

Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) is a mathematics education company founded by Richard Rusczyk in 2003. It markets and sells mathematics textbooks and online courses for middle school and high school students.
History
A set of two books by the same name, The Art of Problem Solving, was coauthored by Richard Rusczyk and Sandor Lehoczky. The books, which are about 750 pages together, are for students who are interested in mathematics or competing in mathematics competitions.
Volume 1: The Basics is appropriate for students just beginning in math contests, while Volume 2: and Beyond is for more advanced students. Both books feature hundreds of problems from actual mathematics competitions, such as the American Mathematics Competitions, the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, the Mandelbrot Competition, Mu Alpha Theta, Mathematics and Informatics Quarterly magazine, and the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Rusczyk founded the Art of Problem Solving website after publishing the two books. Valentin Vornicu founded MathLinks in 2002 and merged it with AoPS in 2004. A wiki powered by MediaWiki was added to the website in 2006.
Staff
The current staff of AoPS include:
*Richard Rusczyk (Founder)
*David Patrick
*Vanessa Rusczyk
*Naoki Sato
*Paul H. Ryu
*Jeremy Copeland
*Jason Batterson
*Tina Cruickshank
*Cody Mathewson
*Tyler McFarland
Projects
USAMTS
AoPS administrates the USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS), one of the USA's selection processes to the AIME and eventually the International Mathematics Olympiad.
Books
AoPS publishes a series of mathematical creative problem solving textbooks, in a range of difficulties. These include The Art of Problem Solving books, as well as the Introduction and Intermediate series, covering topics in algebra, geometry, number theory, counting and probability. Recently, AoPS has released books covering precalculus and calculus.
AoPS also hosts an online bookstore, selling their own books as well as books from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and other various math competitions such as MATHCOUNTS and the AMC.
AoPS on the Internet
AoPS administers online courses at its website, designed for advanced mathematics topics for students from grades 7 to 12. Some courses prepare students for competitions like the AIME and MATHCOUNTS, while others cover specific subjects, such as algebra, geometry, and counting and probability. Although the courses are not graded, students receive feedback on various challenge sets they complete. AoPS also hosts a large mathematics forum for students in middle school, high school, and college levels. There are also many problems from various international mathematics competitions posted. In addition, they run an interactive game called "For The Win" and an interactive program called "Alcumus".
====For the Win!====
AoPS For the Win!, abbreviated FTW by most players, is a competitive math game on the Art of Problem Solving website. Players can play in a MathCounts style Countdown round against up to three other players, or play against many others to answer mathematics problems taken from MathCounts and the AMCs as fast as possible. Players start out with a rating of 1200 and earn or lose rating based on the Elo rating system in chess. There is also a leaderboard for high-achieving players.
Alcumus
AoPS has a learning system called Alcumus. Participants can learn about different topics of mathematics by doing problems and reading detailed solutions to the problems written out by AoPS staff in three main categories: algebra, counting/probability, and number theory. Participants gain experience points if they answer a question correctly, but do not gain experience points if they answer a question incorrectly twice. They may also earn additional points if they answer at least 5 questions in a row. Alcumus also has several quests that give the user more experience points when accomplished. There are also Secret Honors that can be earned.

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