There are two calendars in an AMC season and students routinely collapse them into one. The MAA publishes competition dates — for 2026-27, the A papers on 5 November 2026, the B papers on 13 November 2026, and the AMC 8 across a window from 21 to 27 January 2027. Your own sitting date is administered by your authorised test centre. Our China-region centres are scheduling 6 and 14 November. Neither figure corrects the other, and you need both.
What follows separates the two calendars, sets out how our China-region centres are administering the 2026 sitting, and then does the part almost no season guide does: it identifies the deadlines in October that actually determine what happens in November. Everything below is subject to change by the MAA and by individual centres — confirm dates on maa.org and confirm your own sitting arrangements with the centre that will seat you.
Why one competition can carry two dates without either being wrong
A competition date and an administration date are different pieces of information. The MAA sets and publishes the competition date for each paper. An authorised test centre then administers a sitting, and the day on which a particular centre seats its students is a fact held by that centre, not something you can derive from the published calendar.
This matters because of how the confusion usually surfaces. A student sees 5 November on an English-language source, sees 6 November on a Chinese-language notice from a centre, and concludes that one of them has made a mistake. Then they go looking for which one is “correct,” and whichever they settle on, they have adopted a date they did not verify with the people who will actually seat them.
The discipline is simple and we apply it in every article on this site:
- Quote the MAA date as the MAA date. It is the authoritative competition calendar and it is what maa.org publishes.
- Get your sitting date from your centre, in writing. Not from a forum post, not from a group-chat screenshot, not from last year.
- Never present one as a correction of the other. If a source tells you the “real” date is different from the published one, that source has misunderstood the structure.
The MAA calendar for 2026-27
These are the dates the MAA publishes for the cycle, re-checked on maa.org in August 2026. Nothing about the paper itself changes between A and B: both are 25 multiple-choice questions in 75 minutes, scored 6 points for a correct answer, 0 for an incorrect one and 1.5 for a blank, out of a maximum of 150, with no calculator permitted.
| Paper | MAA published date | Format | What you still have to confirm |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMC 10A & AMC 12A | 5 November 2026 | 25 questions / 75 min / 150 pts | Your centre sitting date and start time |
| AMC 10B & AMC 12B | 13 November 2026 | 25 questions / 75 min / 150 pts | Your centre sitting date and start time |
| AMC 8 | Window: 21–27 January 2027 | Confirm current format on maa.org | Which day inside the window your centre uses |
One structural point that trips people up every year: the A and B papers are two separate competition dates, not two sessions of the same day. Whether a student may enter both, and under what conditions, is an MAA rule to confirm — do not assume it from what a classmate did last year.
The AMC 8 row behaves differently again, and families with a younger sibling in the same house should read it carefully. The MAA publishes 21 to 27 January 2027 as a window, and your centre picks a day inside it. That means two students at two different schools can both correctly say the AMC 8 is on a different date, and neither is confused.
The practical consequence: if you are planning around a family trip, a school exam block or Chinese New Year travel, the window is not enough information. Ask the centre for the specific day, and ask early, because the answer is often set once and not revisited. Current AMC 8 format and eligibility should be confirmed on maa.org.
How our China-region centres are administering the 2026 sitting
Here is the second band, as our own China-region test centres are currently scheduling it. Treat this as an illustration of the kind of detail you need to extract from whichever centre seats you, rather than as a universal arrangement — centres differ.
- Sitting dates: 6 November and 14 November 2026.
- Sitting time: 17:00 to 18:15 Beijing time.
- Paper: bilingual.
- Fee: 120 RMB per sitting.
- Registration: closes and seats lock in early October.
- Withdrawal: possible before 10 October 2026, and not after.
Notice the arithmetic in the sitting time. From 17:00 to 18:15 is seventy-five minutes exactly — the whole paper and nothing else. That is the writing window, not the schedule for your evening. Identification checks, seating, instructions and materials all happen before it, which in practice means arriving substantially earlier than 17:00 and treating any travel plan that has you arriving at 16:55 as a plan that has already failed. The conditions on the day, including what you may bring and what is prohibited, are set by the in-person rules for this cycle — we summarise them in our guide to the 2026 in-person AMC arrangements.
The bilingual paper deserves a sentence too, because students over-read it. A bilingual paper removes the risk that you cannot parse a sentence at all. It does not remove the competition-specific vocabulary problem — terms like distinct, at most, non-negative and relatively prime carry precise mathematical meanings that a translation cannot soften. Read the version you are fastest in, then check the other for any quantifier you are unsure about.
The October deadlines that actually decide your season
Students plan an AMC season around November. The season is in fact decided in the first ten days of October, and once those pass, most of your options are gone.
Two lines matter. The first is when registration closes and seats lock — early October at our centres. After that point, a student who has been undecided all autumn is not sitting the paper. There is no late lane. The second is the withdrawal cut-off, 10 October 2026 at our centres: before it, a change of plan is a change of plan; after it, your entry is committed regardless of what happens in the intervening month.
Working backwards from those two lines gives you the real calendar:
| When | The decision that belongs here | Why it cannot wait |
|---|---|---|
| August | AMC 10 or AMC 12; sit one date or consider both | The two syllabuses need different preparation from now, not from October |
| September | Confirm centre, sitting date, start time and fee in writing | You cannot resolve a seating problem in the week seats lock |
| Early October | Registration closes, seats lock | This is the hard entry deadline — there is no later route in |
| By 10 October | Final withdrawal decision | After this the entry is committed at our centres |
| Mid-late October | Full timed papers under real conditions; travel and school-clash plan | A 17:00 start collides with the end of a school day |
| 5 / 6 and 13 / 14 November | Sit the paper | MAA date and centre sitting date — know which applies to you |
A checklist to work through before the end of September
Print this, or copy it somewhere you will see it. Every item is something we have watched a student get wrong in a real cycle.
- Which paper. AMC 10 or AMC 12 — decided in August, because the syllabuses diverge and preparation cannot be reallocated in late October.
- Which centre, confirmed in writing. A name in a chat group is not a confirmation. Ask for the sitting date, the start time, the arrival time and the fee in one message and keep the reply.
- Which date applies to you. Write both down: the MAA published date, and your centre sitting date. Do not let one overwrite the other in your notes.
- The 17:00 problem. If your sitting starts at 17:00 Beijing time, map the journey from your last class. Build in an hour you do not think you need.
- The 10 October line. Put the withdrawal cut-off in the calendar as a hard event, not a reminder. It is the last day the season is reversible at our centres.
- Fee and what it covers. 120 RMB per sitting at our centres — per sitting, so two dates is two fees. Confirm the equivalent at yours.
- The rules on the day. In-person only at authorised centres for this cycle; know what you may and may not bring before you pack a bag. Our 2026 in-person rules summary is the short version.
- One full timed paper before the end of October. 75 minutes, 25 questions, no calculator, no pauses. Everything above is logistics; this is the only item that changes your score.
Frequently asked questions
Is the 2026 AMC 10/12 on 5 November or 6 November?
Both figures are real. The MAA publishes 5 November; our China-region centres are scheduling 6 November. Confirm your own date with your centre.
What time does the China-region sitting run?
Our centres are scheduling 17:00 to 18:15 Beijing time. That is the 75-minute paper only, so arrive well before 17:00.
When does registration close for 2026?
Registration closes and seats lock in early October at our centres. Withdrawal is possible before 10 October 2026 and not after.
Is the AMC 8 date fixed?
No. The MAA publishes a window of 21 to 27 January 2027, and your centre chooses a day inside it. Ask the centre directly.
This is an independent English-language guide operated by Hanlin Education for China-based international-school students. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Competition dates, eligibility rules, formats and scoring are set by the MAA and can change; registration, fee and withdrawal terms are set by individual authorised test centres and differ between them. Always confirm current details on maa.org and with the centre that will seat you. If you find an error in this article, tell us and we will correct it within 7 working days.