From email sent out today: "Important Changes coming up for Math Kangaroo 2023: We are excited to announce that the officially acknowledged (with ranks and awards) Math Kangaroo 2023 is going to be facilitated only at schools and educational institutions. Virtual-individual participation will still be allowed in 2023 but will not be officially counted."

When did AoPS Group Theory come back? It's been missing for years. I never saw it run, and I had assumed it wasn't coming back.

2021-2022 MATHCOUNTS Registration Is now Open (not sure when it appeared - just noticed it). Main page https://www.mathcounts.org/programs/mathcounts-competition-series Registration https://www.mathcounts.org/registration/login?destination=/registration It looks like it's back to the standard 4 levels in the MATHCOUNTS Competition Series: school, chapter, state and national (so "chapter invitational" level was for 2020-21 only). Schools can now have a team of 4 plus 8 individuals (total 12), so 2 more individuals than before. Home schoolers have the same rules as before, and can make a team or compete as individuals (which is what our son did for 3 years). But what is a big deal for us is that the "Non-School Competitor (NSC)" category, which was newly introduced last year, has been continued, which wasn't a sure thing. This means that students who are in a school that does not compete in Mathcounts can compete as individuals, similarly to homeschoolers. It used to be that students in this category (attending a non-Mathcounts-competing school) were out of luck and could not compete in Mathcounts. This means our daughter can compete (as she could last year) just because of this NSC category. Yay! 🙂 NSC registration https://www.mathcounts.org/programs/non-school-competitor-registration Rules https://www.mathcounts.org/programs/official-rules-procedures Good luck everyone.

^ The contest prep arms race has been going much longer. My son learned this theorem https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Chicken_McNugget_Theorem in AoPS MathCounts/AMC8 Advanced class about 5 years ago. I've been told that the American IMO team learned this same thing in their 1983 training camp (MOP?), which prepared them for a 3-variable version which was problem 3 that year. And superpowers like USA and USSR (and some smaller math-devoted countries) were a lot more serious and trained than some other countries.

I know nothing about Awesome Math and IDEA math. WOOT is definitely good, but unfortunately my son did not take good advantage of it. He participated fairly well in the classes, and took all the graded practice exams, but there is much much more available in terms of problems and discussion that he didn't take advantage of, so in some sense we didn't really get our money's worth (son's fault, not WOOT's). It is definitely the kind of thing where you get out of it what you put into it, so it's very worthwhile for those who like to work hard on problems and prepare for contests. He didn't really want to work hard, or prepare, or even think about what it might take to do well at higher levels, but that's okay - he can just do contests for fun now (which is what he always did, but it used to work much better when younger - it also worked when I was a kid when preparation was non-existent, but things have changed a lot). Actually I was partly paying to discover once and for all what his attitude was on this, so maybe I got my money's worth in that sense. He'll be going to a fairly selective public school next semester where, for example he can start with Linear Algebra, and probably not run out of courses, (or barely so), and there are similarly high level courses in all subjects. This is a much better fit for him, as he will be doing "regular" college level courses some years ahead, and learning a lot, and enjoying it, but that really is easier than something like WOOT. I also think I'll steer him away from academia careerwise - I'm not sure he should even do a PhD. Actually I almost always watched him taking AoPS classes, and so I learned from WOOT, and some from some other classes.

Actually that email was from AoPS. But the new calendar is up on the MAA website (with at least some of these dates) https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/about-amc/events-calendar

From email: In chronological order: AMC 10/12 Version A - November 10, 2021 Version B - November 16, 2021 AMC 8 January 18–24, 2022 AIME AIME I - February 8, 2022 AIME II - February 16, 2022 USA(J)MO March 8–9, 2022

(OP here) Wow, lots of comments. Thanks for the test suggestions - I will look into them as to which are suitable and available. 12yo daughter is now accepted in the virtual public charter (it's not selective but can get full so admission was likely but not certain). They do offer subject acceleration and make this known (they want to attract good students) but nevertheless need to see justification. The (age 5) gifted evaluation gets the conversation started and taken seriously, but they need some more recent evidence of readiness for the desired courses. I should find out exactly what they want (but was hoping to come in with a test score already done). Actually there may be tests the school itself administers. One nerve-wracking aspect of this is that we need to officially drop the old school and accept the new school now, but we don't really have certainty about the assigned courses until the beginning of the next semester. We just have to take the risk of jumping schools. But sometimes you have to take risks. To the comments about if you do Alg 1 in grade 7, what do you do in later grades - the plan is to later switch to a somewhat selective public school (available at higher grades) that offers high level courses that to be on track to reach you would need to be doing Alg 1 in grade 7, so the plan makes sense. I have heard about some places wanting to eliminate all differentiation in education, but I think we are safe here for now.

Beast Academy (by Art of Problem Solving)? https://artofproblemsolving.com/store/list/beast-academy

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It looks like ACT is out for now, but I'm still interested in ideas for how to get appropriate level course lineup (whether via testing or anything else). Some more details. In the Fall our 12 year old daughter is switching to a virtual K-12 charter school, to start grade 7. They are open to subject acceleration, (it's logistically easy for them) but they need evidence that it is appropriate. In grade 7 we would want "typical grade 9 level courses" in all subjects, such as Algebra 1 (she's done prealgebra, so that should be justifiable), and similarly for other subjects, though for those, while she has had adequate preparation, it's not so clear how to prove it. She has not formally done any high school courses, but is ready to start them now. In a few years she will hopefully switch to a somewhat selective public school that offers courses up to 2nd year college level, so the aim is to have her on track to reach those. She would then start college at the normal age, so staying in the regular grade while doing more advanced coursework. I was hoping ACT would be available and would help. Her brother had from his school an online account with some practice ACT tests (by a 3rd party, not ACT, but I believe they are accurate). There were some left unused so our daughter took one, without preparation, and got English-32, Reading-32, Science-27, Math-25, Composite-29. If she could have got this on a real ACT then I would think it would help make our case. It's above average for our local university, so it should at least indicate readiness to start beginning level high school subjects. I'm not familiar with all the various possible tests, but it appears that one can get a reasonable score on ACT just based on general academic aptitude without specific high school course content knowledge, so if there are alternative tests, we would want something that shows that kind of profile in a favorable light. She can read/comprehend at a high rate, and seems to be stronger on the verbal/humanities side than the nonverbal/STEM side (and age 5 gifted test also showed this) though she is interested in pursuing STEM areas in college. Anyway, that all may weigh into the choice of test, if there is any choice. So, any thoughts generally about how to advocate, with or without some testing, for these subject placements?

So the feedback I now have: ACT says under-13s cannot create online account, and therefore cannot register through ACT at all, as they offer no other method. They suggested contacting talent searches instead. A couple of talent searches said that ACT has told them that these talent searches are not allowed to register anyone up to 8th grade (one said up to 9th), saying that 11-12th graders are being prioritized due to previous backlogs. They suggested contacting ACT instead. Although it sounds a bit runaround-ish, it all sounds plausible, so it's not looking like our 12 year old daughter will get to take the ACT this summer, even though half the testing centers in our area still have seats. Oh well, this was mainly to try to get the right level course lineup at the new school, so we'll have to make the case for that some other way. (For anyone reading this in the future, these restrictions appear to be temporary.)

Now I am told by email from ACT that paper registration for under-13s is something they used to do, but not any more, and that under-13s now cannot register through ACT at all, and can only go through a talent search. I will try to contact the talent searches. (I had heard of them a long time ago, but never used them.) Is the potential list: CTY, Belin-Blank, NUMATS, Duke-TIP? (I couldn't find anything on the Duke-TIP, and someone above said it's defunct - is that right?)

I have tried phoning ACT at 319-337-1270 (four times - after a wait, two got cut off, and two times I got through to a human, but they didn't seem to know what they were talking about) and I emailed to act-cares@act.org and what I am being told is that a 12-year-old cannot make an online account (that part is true) and that therefore they cannot register for ACT through ACT and have to go through a talent search. I am skeptical about the impossibility of registering through ACT. I found a helpful blog here http://www.profoundlygiftedparenting.com/act-sat-testing-for-students-under-13/ and they said there is at least a paper form process for registering under-13s through ACT, and that it could maybe be sped up using email rather than snailmail. Has anyone registered in the past like this? I'd rather do it directly through ACT itself rather than going through a talent search, as that seems like an extra complication, but we'll have to see what can work.

Given the timeline (wanting to do ACT on 17th July 2021, with nearest sites full, but still some within an hours drive), what is our best path to getting in? (Our 15yo son has an ACT account so we can see what's available in that account, but 12yo daughter cannot get such an account.)

Thanks. That's SAT, not ACT, though. It does show that there are generally age-based rules.

Update: Old title: How to register 12 year old in ACT exam? New title: How to advocate for subject acceleration at new school? It won't be possible to do ACT this summer, so really now we're asking for any advice generally on how to advocate for subject acceleration at new school (i.e. grade 9 coursework while in grade 7) - an ACT test, if possible, was to have been one way to make that case. ---------------------------------------------------------- Original post: We were planning to register our 12 year daughter old in the ACT exam scheduled for 17th July 2021 (and it's getting late, as some centers are full). However when I went to open an online account to register online I found you can't make an online account for children under 13. Can anyone tell me how to register at this age? Our daughter is switching to a virtual charter school, and the scores will help her get appropriate subject acceleration (1-2 years - the school would be willing, but they need evidence of readiness level). Thanks.

^ A two year old that didn't have to wait until a Discrete Math class to discover the pigeonhole principle!

You got me curious, so I looked at that thread, and it appears what you're asking stems from this comment by 4KookieKids: `But I also recognize it's probably about on par (or even less) than many "deeper" options.' https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/706996-elements-of-mathematics-foundations-reviews-x-posted/?tab=comments#comment-8900268 I don't know what is being referred to here - just thought I'd pinpoint the probable source of your question. I'm curious too.

We have got it now. DS says the content looks pretty similar to Uzinggo (not surprisingly). The lesson selection layout looks totally different, but it appears you can select from the full list.

^Thanks!

Thanks. DS ended up taking the AoPS courses. I'm curious about your comparison between MIT edX and MIT OpenCourseWare. Are you saying the edX courses lack something that the OCW courses have?

^ We've never received anything "official". I don't think there's any way to formally document AMC results.

What did everyone use for video proctoring (for AMC 8)? AMC 10/12 A/B are coming up, Feb 4 and 10. Did you need any kind of software or account for the proctor to see through the webcam. Are proctors improvising arbitrary methods to online proctor, meaning things can go wrong at a bad time. I assume the AoPS account has nothing to do with webcam proctoring.

Thanks. If we end up getting it, I can provide feedback too.

Did you end up getting a subscription, and if so, is it back to functionality/content similar to Uzinggo, or at least is it easy to use for parent and kid? We're thinking of it as a supplement for DD.