Start November 26 for the January 21 to 27 window

The 2027 AMC 8 is a little over ten weeks away, and a lot of families haven't checked the one thing that can end the plan early: whether the student actually has a place to take it. This guide covers that first, then gives you a dated, week-by-week schedule for the eight weeks before the contest window opens.

The official dates and format

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) runs the AMC 8. For the 2026-27 cycle, the contest window is January 21 to 27, 2027. Your student's school or test site picks one day inside that window, so you won't know your exact day until they tell you.

• 25 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes.
• Open to students in grade 8 and below who are under 15.5 years old on contest day.
• One attempt per year.
• Students don't register themselves. A school or another approved site registers them through a competition manager.

Please confirm everything on the MAA AMC page before you plan around it. MAA can change details, and it is the only source that counts.

Do this week: make sure there's a test site

If your student's school runs the AMC 8, ask the math teacher or counselor who the competition manager is and whether your student is on the list. If the school doesn't participate, you have options. MAA publishes a list of competition sites that accept students from other schools, and it also publishes an AMC 8 letter to parents that you can hand to a principal or a math teacher.

The deadlines matter more than most families expect. According to MAA, competition managers register on three tiers: October 28, 2026 for early registration, January 5, 2027 for regular registration (the final date for new managers), and January 14, 2027 for late registration, which is open to returning managers only. If your school has never run the AMC 8, it can't wait for the holidays to ask about it. A teacher who agrees to manage the contest in early December has plenty of time. One who hears about it on January 4 does not.

The eight weeks, with dates

Eight weeks before January 21 starts on Thursday, November 26, 2026. Each block below runs Thursday through Wednesday, so the last one ends the day before the window opens. About four sessions a week of 30 to 40 minutes is plenty. Short and regular beats a long weekend block. If you're starting a week or two late, jump to the week that matches today's date and don't try to catch up.

Week 1, November 26 to December 2: take a baseline

Sit one full test, 25 questions in 40 minutes, no calculator, no pausing. A released past AMC 8 works, and so does our free timed mock AMC 8, which comes with a score report by topic. Then give your student another 40 minutes to rework the problems they missed or guessed on. The gap between the timed and untimed scores tells you whether the problem is speed or content, and that decides how you spend the next seven weeks.

Week 2, December 3 to 9: fix the early problems

The first ten or so problems carry the most reliable points. Work only problems 1 to 12 from past tests until your student misses two or fewer. Fractions, percents, ratios, averages and basic area should be automatic by the end of the week.

Week 3, December 10 to 16: number theory and counting

Spend the week on factors, multiples, divisibility, remainders, the multiplication principle and careful casework. These show up in the middle of every AMC 8, and they are the most teachable topics on the test. Do 8 to 10 problems on one idea in a row, then mix in a few older ones to see if it stuck.

Week 4, December 17 to 23: geometry and algebra

Area by subtraction, the Pythagorean theorem, similar triangles, angle chasing, and word problems that reduce to a linear equation. End the week with one mixed set of 12 problems and about 20 minutes on the clock.

Week 5, December 24 to 30: a lighter week

It's the holidays, so keep it small. Two or three short sessions that redo the problems in your error log, cold, without looking at the solutions. If a problem is still missed, write down the faster method next to it. This is also a good week to check back with the school about the test day.

Week 6, December 31 to January 6: a second timed test, reviewed properly

Take a second full test under real conditions and compare it with the baseline. Then spend more time on the review than on the test itself. Sort every miss into careless, missing tool, missing insight, or time. If most misses are careless, more content won't help. The fix is slower reading and a checking habit.

Week 7, January 7 to 13: the harder half

Work problems 16 to 25 from several past tests. These need multi-step thinking, a clever substitution, or a smarter way to count. Practice leaving a problem after a few minutes of no progress. That skill is worth a point or two on its own. Take a third full test at the end of the week.

Week 8, January 14 to 20: simulate, then rest

Take one last full test early in the week, in a quiet room with a filled-in answer sheet, and practice the end routine of guessing on anything blank with a minute left. A wrong answer costs nothing on the AMC 8, so a blank is a point given away. After that, no new topics. Review the error log, sleep well, and let the last two days feel boring. We cover pacing in our test-day strategy guide.

How many practice tests to take

Three or four full tests across eight weeks is enough: the baseline, one around the New Year, one in week 7, and one in week 8. More than that tends to turn into taking tests without reviewing them, which is the least useful way to spend an hour. If you want more than the free one, the Mock AMC 8 page has two more full-length mocks, each with the same score report.

What a good score looks like

A score only means something next to the cutoffs, and the cutoffs move from year to year. Our AMC 8 cutoffs page lists the Honor Roll and Distinguished Honor Roll lines for recent years and has a score calculator. For how the scoring works, see our guide to AMC 8 scoring and awards. If your student is in a math club, the club page has one shareable link for the whole group.

If you only read one paragraph

Confirm a test site this week, take a baseline starting November 26, and build the schedule around the weakest area. Four short sessions a week and three or four reviewed practice tests will do more than a crash course in January. For the longer plan by score band, see how to prepare for the AMC 8.