We and many other schools appealed to moems.org about the accepted solution to problem 1C on the grounds that the question was ambiguous and the answer 972 should be accepted. This appeal was denied. The best denial reason in my opinion was: "If the 'certain 3-digit' number were written in words, the order is absolutely clear: left to right. Without that phrase, there might be a possibility of merit to this appeal; however, with the phrase present, it is clearly defined to be the standard sense of a left-to-right reading of the digits of THAT number. By 'NOT reading the number backwards or forward', they have bypassed a crucial fact of this problem."