I've been reading that the AMC (and other competitive subject exams) is replacing the SAT for the most high achieving students.

I feel ya, Bakers Dozen. I teach at a co-op, and at the end of this semester, I'm done. I feel like I'm a glorified babysitter for kids who get dropped off at the co-op for a few hours so moms can take a break. I think there really is something to the self-selecting of parents who send their kids to co-op as opposed to directly overseeing their students' education. (I don't mean this is true of all co-op parents, but there are enough of them, that it sets the tone for the rest of the class.) I have had better luck with having parents select a group of peers and hiring me to teach the small group in their home. When a mom hand selects students to join her child in a class, they are likely to all be on the same page as far as attitude and commitment. This particular mom even warned me about one student as being flaky and encouraged me to contact her if she dragged the rest of the class down. (This student didn't. They were all lovely.) I've also decided not to teach "core" classes anymore, only enrichment. That way if a student is absent, there is no makeup required. Each class is pretty much independent of the rest. I've had students be absent for serious medical issues and other great opportunities. I want to be supportive, but I just don't have time to deal with this. And finally, I spend a lot of my time tutoring 1:1. When parents are paying by the hour, they step up. Like Ann Landers used to say, no one can take advantage of you without your permission. Design your life the way you want it, to the extent that you can. I'm trying my best to do the same.

I agree with Penelope. Many of our high school campuses are closed and tightly controlled against outsiders. After I walked my dd to a classroom for her AP exam and I was walking back to my car, I was approached more than once by faculty who asked to "help" me. In particular, I think the private schools are less accommodating to outsiders who aren't paying their steep tuition. The public schools seem to be more oriented toward serving the public, I've observed. But still. I hated calling and emailing and waiting for replies. We have a couple of locations that host AP exams that aren't even regular high schools. They are more like after schooling centers and independent study centers. I only learn about them through word of mouth. How much nicer it would be if I could see easily who was open to outsiders taking the exam and registering online.

So my younger dd who is taking the class is enrolled in regular school, so she's after schooling this class. I thought she dropped the class, since she is still on Unit 1, but she just completed a couple more quizzes, so maybe she'll finish it? So I don't have much to report except to say that the quizzes have a very detailed answer key so that your student will understand even why each multiple choice problem is correct or not. There isn't any interaction with the teacher as far as I'm aware, but there is a discussion board. I would list it as an AP class. Check back again next semester; hopefully I'll have more info.

Nice! So you know some of the teachers in this video personally?

Multiple students can use the same online book, but they would need to use the username and password of the first student. I've accessed the same online textbook as my student from a remote location at the same time, both of us logged into the same AoPS account.

I completed it for my dd a few weeks ago. It was okay, not great. Mostly, I had a difficult time determining if I had completed everything. And I had a difficult time figuring out how to even get started. But once I clicked on the right thing it was mostly straightforward. I wasn't anticipating having to use it, so I didn't make a practice account last year. My dd sort of sprung it on me this year. Then she almost decided to give up on it in frustration, but ultimately completed that application. I'm not aware of the locker, and didn't use it. I hope it isn't important? I didn't experience any difficulties specific to homeschooling. (Now I wish I had seen one of those linked guides from Lori D!)

You might want to tell your dd, if she doesn't already have a corrected copy, that there is a typo on p.235. In the solution to problem 7.20, second paragraph it reads: "Since r=1, the equation f(t)=1..." It should read f(t)=0.

I'm sorry to hear about your dd. I hope she has a quick recovery and a successful outcome. I thought chapter 7 did a nice job of stepping you through roots of unity, starting with specific examples (n=3, n=4) and then generalizing. I wonder if she can carefully work through the examples on paper as they are described in the book, if that would help. (If she isn't already doing this.) Basically the n roots form the vertices of a regular n-gon in the complex plane. Did you already try searching youtube?

If you want to save time, you can use one of their sample syllabi. For other courses they provide several to choose from. If you do select a sample syllabus, they give you an automatic approval within a few minutes. And you don't even need to stick to it.

Could you link to those reviews?

I don't have personal experience, but I found this thread.

How about Gentle Introduction to the AIME by Scott Annin? Or poke around the MAA bookstore and see what looks interesting.

Also: I misunderstood, I thought you were a teacher of the class, not a fellow student. How annoying that plagiarism seems to be more common. (My dd sees it in her online classes as well.) Trouble is, the easier it is to steal, the easier it is to detect by searching on a few key words.

Just curious: do you routinely check student work to see if it's plagiarized? Or did you accidentally stumble on it? (It doesn't make a difference to your question; I'm just curious.)

Do you have to do the co-op? Can you instead do the academic learning at home and then meet up with friends for purely socializing?

I agree with this. Also Great Courses offers a class on Discrete Math that's taught by Arthur Benjamin from Harvey Mudd. He has an excellent explanation of RSA crytography, that doesn't skip over the math, but is still very accessible. Also the videos by 3Blue 1Brown are eye opening.

You know, the online classes aren't right for every student. I'm tutoring a kid right now who is/has taken several AoPS online classes. He love them, but...he still needs guidance and additional instruction in order to complete the homework. That's why they hire me. I never had my dd's take the online classes, except for the "extra" classes for AMC and MathCounts prep. The core classes we did at home using the textbook only. What I mean to say is YMMV, and if the books are working for you and you want to stay low-media, don't feel like you need to change.

It's done! I finally hit Submit on the Common App. The very last minute hiccup was when we were doing the final review. I had a running header with dd's name and DOB in the upper left of each page. Trouble is, Common App also adds its own header to each page, also in the upper left. So on the counselor letter there is a nice patch of garbled text. So it was back to the document to right justify the header, print as pdf, and reupload. Whew! I also went ahead and uploaded documents to the Coalition App. I can't tell, but I think I finished that one too, but it was a bit anticlimactic.

Attention, Fangirls: You can now hear RR discuss founding and growing Art of Problem Solving in this podcast interview.

You don't need to visit in advance. But you might consider whether a college considers demonstrated interest versus inconvenience. (Not all colleges use DI in determining admissions.) Also, seeing a variety of types of colleges (urban/rural, large/small, etc.) can help your student decide where to apply.

So say we all. Also: Resistance is futile.

WOW. I would just open the AoPS book each morning cold and wing it as we went along, reading it for the very first time when I read it out loud to them. Finally (at around intermed. algebra or precalc) they started to get annoyed at me and insisted that I do the introductory problems in advance, so I started actually doing some prep work, but I guess I'm lazy. My kids would've loved having you teach.

Oh, I didn't know mish-mash was an option! That's me.

U Chicago! Inside it reads: "The cat's out of the bag! There's no one right way to put together a great college application." and "Don't hesitate to reach out to admissions offices with any questions you may have--curiosity can only help this cat." We also received a deck of playing cards from Harvey Mudd. Each card has a fun fact about the college.