The model receives an AIME problem statement and must produce a solution ending in a single integer answer (000โ999). The answer is extracted from the generated text and compared against the key. The standard metric is pass@1 (fraction of problems solved correctly on a single attempt); because of the small number of problems (15 per edition, 30 total across AIME I+II), results are often averaged over multiple samples (avg@n / mean pass@1) to reduce variance.
Math benchmarks quickly become contaminated by training data, so they stop reliably measuring a model's true reasoning. A fresh AIME 2026 edition provides an up-to-date, likely-unseen problem set, allowing evaluation of reasoning generalization rather than memorization.
MAA releases two versions of the exam each year; both are used as separate or combined test sets for AI models.
Each edition contains 15 problems; the answer is an integer 000โ999, which enables automatic, unambiguous verification of the model's answer.
Fraction of correct answers on a single attempt; often averaged over multiple samples due to the small sample size.
Older AIME editions can leak into training data and inflate scores; hence the freshest edition is preferred.
Only 15 problems per edition (30 for AIME I+II) makes a single pass@1 noisy.
Extracting the final integer answer from the model's reasoning can be unreliable and affect the score.
MAA introduces AIME as a 15-question, 3-hour selective exam.
The 2024 edition becomes widely reported in reasoning-model cards as a measure of mathematical reasoning (pass@1).
After the 2025 problems are released, the edition becomes a current benchmark; the AIME 2025 set is incorporated into, among others, the Artificial Analysis methodology.
The 2026 edition serves as the freshest, likely training-unseen set for evaluating reasoning models.
Number of attempts allowed in evaluation; pass@1 is the standard for AIME.
Number of generations averaged to reduce variance given only 15 problems per edition.
Affects generation diversity and the stability of the pass@1 result.
