\vspace* adds unwanted page in amsbook

Question

Background: I'm using the amsbook environment, and the title created by \tableofcontents starts near the first quarter of the page by default. I've been trying to move it up by placing a \vspace{-3in} before \tableofcontents, but it didn't do anything. Then I tried \vspace*{-3in} and not only did it not work, it also inserted two blank pages (or 1, if I use the oneside parameter for amsbook) before the table of contents. I tested it with positive numbers too and observed the same behaviour.

Everything worked, however, when I changed from amsbook to article.

Question: How I can use vspace with a negative value to move my table of contents up in the amsbook environment, without creating new pages. My table of contents is supposed to start on a new page.

Other things I've tried: Instead of using a plain \vspace right before \tableofcontents, I've also tried

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\patchcmd{\tableofcontents}{\@starttoc}{\clearpage\vspace{-3in}\@starttoc}{}{}

which also didn't do anything, and created a new page when I added the *.

Code:

\documentclass[12pt]{amsbook}

\begin{document}
  \tableofcontents
\end{document}

\documentclass[12pt]{amsbook}

\begin{document}
  \vspace{-3in}
  \tableofcontents
\end{document}

Both of the code blocks above produced this

\documentclass[12pt]{amsbook}

\begin{document}
  \vspace*{-3in}
  \tableofcontents
\end{document}

This produced

Answer 1

You may want to treat the chapters initiated by \tableofcontents, \listoffigures and \listoftables in a different fashion.

\documentclass[oneside]{amsbook}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage{showframe}% just for showing the placement

\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd{\@starttoc}{\@makeschapterhead}{\special@makeschapterhead}{}{}
\let\special@makeschapterhead\@makeschapterhead
\xpatchcmd{\special@makeschapterhead}{7.5pc}{0pt}{}{}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\tableofcontents

\mainmatter

\chapter{Test title}

\end{document}

I use oneside just to show the relative placements in a smaller picture; also showframe is used to display the text block boundaries.

Answer 2

You can try this. It will affect all unnumbered chapter! Adapt the 10pt to your needs.

\documentclass[12pt]{amsbook}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\@makeschapterhead{7.5pc}{10pt}{}{\fail}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
  \tableofcontents
  \chapter*{something}
\end{document}