In my area, we had 3 homeschoolers in MIDDLE SCHOOL qualify for AIME. AIME!

I'm sorry for what sounds like an awful experience. Could you elaborate a bit on what incorrect information he received from his advisors?

I'm in California, and we know a bunch of smart CMU grads who work at start ups out here. I don't know anyone from Columbia. Plus, they do all that cool robotics. CMU definitely seems to have a cool factor going for them. When I think of Columbia, for some reason I think law school and expensive NYC housing. Pretty flaky impressions, but I would personally rank CMU much higher than Columbia for those reasons.

Was anyone else impressed that her list of activities included something called "caving?" I wondered if it had something to do with exploring caves, but I had to look it up to make sure. That is probably the single most impressive thing on her list of ECs. I mean, how many high school girls don a helmet on a regular basis, and lower themselves into some dark damp hole in the ground? Yikes.

Patterns for College Writing

Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World

Dd would like to use a calculator with an exponent button. Is that allowed? If your student used a calculator for this exam, could you post which one s/he used? Calculator Policy AP Biology Course & Exam A four-function calculator (with square root) is permitted on both the multiple-choice and free-response sections of the AP Biology Exam since both sections contain questions that require data manipulation. No other types of calculators, including scientific and graphing calculators, are permitted for use on the exam. Four-function calculators have a one line display and a simple layout of numeric keys (e.g., 0–9), arithmetic operation keys (e.g., +, -, ×, and ÷), and a limited number of special-use keys (e.g., %, +/-, C, and AC). Simple memory buttons like MC, M+, M-, and MR may also be included on a four-function calculator. Scientific calculators have a more complicated, multi-row layout that includes various special-use keys, including ones for trigonometric and logarithmic functions such as SIN, COS, TAN, TRIG, LOG, and LN. In contrast to scientific calculators, four-function calculators do not include trigonometric and logarithmic functions, statistical capabilities, or graphing capabilities. Students may bring up to two four-function calculators (with square root) to the exam.

Electronics. Depending on his previous experience you can Make: Electronics by Charles Platt or the volume 2.

Dd did say that the graders are to ignore anything that is crossed out on the exam. Writing with pen still adds to the stress, but there is some room for editing. Maybe someone can confirm, but my dd tells me that students can use pencil on the exam, but that pen is recommended because the writing might appear faded when the document is scanned.

We are enjoying the Hitch hiker's guide to Calculus.

I just typed that into a google image search. LOL!

Singapore is great for this.

My Homeschool Transcripts. I've been using it for years as my dd's apply to schools, camps, and academic programs. It has forms to fill in for course descriptions, grades, standardized test scores, extracurriculars and awards. It keeps me organized and when my kids get a score for any test, I immediately enter it into the software. I generates pdfs of transcripts automatically which I love.

I love the ideas from the PPs. On a related note, for further inspiration, consider reading "Hold on to your kids: while parents should matter more than peers."

The CC student sitting next to you could be a Stanford student majoring in computer science. From the degree requirements for computer science at Stanford: "In general, almost any college level, first year physics class that covers mechanics and E&M will be awarded transfer credit and count towards the physics requirement. So if you want to take physics at Foothill College [the local cc], the local community college, or at home over the summer, that is usually fine." I took chemistry at Foothill and it got me into a top 5 medical school. I was not unmotivated (nor were the other students) and the class was excellent, and prepared me well for the MCAT.

Depending on his type of engineering major, he may not need any college chemistry, so yes, you could probably just do conceptual chemistry in college. But I'll throw this out: if he's interested in engineering, he probably has solid quantitative skills, so may do fine with solving equations in chemistry. At the very least, it's good practice, applying his math skills to the sciences.

Yes, I noticed there were a lot of errors in the editions I used, and most frustrating, they didn't maintain an errata list. But if you are a grammar goddess, you'll probably notice them yourself and correct as you go.

No. Volumes 2 and 3 are divided into elementary and middle school levels, while volume 1 does not make that distinction. Some people like the Creative Problem Solving book, but I thought it was mostly pedagogy and not practice problems. In fact, I doubt you'll need more than one volume of old contests. By the time your student has worked through most of a single book, he'll probably be ready for old MathCounts and AMC8 exams. HTH.

MOEMS is super easy for homeschoolers. The season runs November-March with one exam per month, only 5 questions in a half hour. You can use the 2nd half hour to go over the exam. It's fun to do it as a small group, and the MOEMS people will send you some nice certificates, trophies, patches and pins at the end of the season. We award them at an end of the year party. But enrolling an official team costs around $100. If you don't want to go through the expense and bother, you will have more flexibility simply by using their books of old exams. Just photocopy an old exam, and you can have your student do it on his own, or with a group. Now you can schedule it whenever it's convenient: once a week, once a month, year round if you like. And there's no registration cost. We've been involved with MOEMS for many years, and it's a great way to launch into math competitions. I've had students as young as 3rd grade participate, though 4th grade is more typical.

Basically they are saying they want your dd so badly, they are paying her to attend! Good for her! :hurray:

A little OT, but this reminds me of a friend who had been desperately trying to get a bunch of families together for a group buy. After weeks of marketing, emails, pleads, sales pitches, she finally had enough families to make it financially viable for everyone. So she sent out an email saying she had everyone she needed, thank you. That's when everyone came out of the wood work. All of a sudden you had parents emailing to join the group after she already had her group buy in place. "Oh, I must have missed your announcements, can we join?" I was joking that we homeschoolers are so fickle, our first recruitment email should read: "Thank you for your interest in my <debate/math/robotics> team! For those who didn't respond, I am taking names for the wait list." I've decided that all announcements should begin with a wait list.

To those who don't get this article, here's the first comment from Blonde Guy (emphases are mine): "I was a high school student from a place, and a family, that didn't value education. When my parents prevented my older sister, top student in her class from even applying to college, I enlisted all the help I could get. I couldn't afford, and wouldn't have known about, any special classes, but the book Hernandez refers to was in the library. I fought with my parents to take college prep courses, fought again to get them to do the financial forms I had to have to get scholarships. I made it out. ... And I got weekly letters from my parents saying that I was wasting their money and my time." I find that it's the new immigrant families who know more about competitive college admissions than native-born Americans. It's like they all know before they even arrive about the AMCs and ISEF.

Another vote for AoPS. The explanations take you through slowly and carefully without skipping a single step. Read and savor every word!

Barron's and Princeton Review.

Some of the challenge problems are not that hard. To save time, we'll sometimes only do the challenge problems that are from AMC or AIME.