Getting started with math competitions

[swimmermom3]

For those of you involved with the math competitions, how do we get started? This is an area I am clueless in.

[Colleen in SEVA]

:lurk5:

[KAR120C]

For those of you involved with the math competitions, how do we get started? This is an area I am clueless in.

I'd start with the websites.... The ones I know are MOEMS, MathCounts, and the AMC exams. MOEMS and AMC require a group of some kind, but MathCounts you can sign up as an individual, or make a team of homeschoolers on your own. (For MOEMS and AMC I got permission to sign up on behalf of our homeschool group with the understanding that I would make the exams available to anyone in our group that wanted to participate... MathCounts I wasn't willing to open to everyone because I had a team picked out, so I did that separately.) MOEMS allowed me to proctor and score exams, but AMC required a non-related proctor and a second signature on the form (the "principal", which in our case was the secretary of our homeschool group board). MathCounts is done as an in-person event, so there's no real proctoring involved. All three cost something, but not a ton.

 

Sometimes you can find the AMC-10 and AMC-12 offered by a local university -- then you just need to contact them and show up.

 

The MOEMS "season" runs October to March (Exams in November to March), so you can sign up anytime from now through September... There's no minimum number of kids on a team, but you do need to be an organization rather than an individual family. MathCounts registration goes through December, with chapter competitions in February and states in March... it helps a lot to have done some solid prep leading up to the competitions, so I'd suggest registering by August or September so you can have your materials early. The AMC-8 is in November, and the 10 and 12 are in February.

 

That's the basic just-starting-out stuff.... There's a lot of overlap between MOEMS and MathCounts and between MathCounts and AMC (MOEMS is much easier than AMC but MathCounts fits in between them rather neatly), so prepping for one will help with all of them. MathCounts has a huge amount of material "out there" for practice, and if you can track down a coach that's willing to share, you can get a bunch of problem sets. The AMC people sell a CD of old exams for $25 that's definitely worth the price... and for MOEMS when you register you get a couple years of old exams too. There are books of competition math materials too, but if you get just what's easy you've already got enough that you'll start to see the patterns in what kinds of problems to expect.

 

Hope this helps!

[PeterPan]

I got the AMC cd set to work through just for fun, not because we're doing competitions. It's something you could get now. Actually, the problems in the Math Olympiad book AoPS sells are very, very similar and give you a lot for your money. The AMC set came with a book and the cd, so we've done the book just in the car as a group (multiple kids competing), which makes it fun. The Math Olympiad stuff we do just as a problem a day, one page a week. Makes it easy to integrate into our regular time. And yes, they're different enough in thought process that you really want to have worked through them before jumping into competition. I'd get the books now.

[swimmermom3]

Would it make sense to get some of the materials and start working our way through them to see if ds likes the math work before we try to locate a team?

[PeterPan]

Yes, DEFINITELY do this, do it now. :)

[swimmermom3]

Yes, DEFINITELY do this, do it now. :)

 

Elizabeth, thanks for the swift kick.:D I needed it as this as all new territory and my knees are a little shaky. Obtaining the materials, working through them, and getting our feet wet sounds much safer than finding a group and making a commitment. You'd never know I was a swim mom would you?:tongue_smilie:

[Matryoshka]

Elizabeth, thanks for the swift kick.:D I needed it as this as all new territory and my knees are a little shaky. Obtaining the materials, working through them, and getting our feet wet sounds much safer than finding a group and making a commitment. You'd never know I was a swim mom would you?:tongue_smilie:

 

I bought the AoPS Number Theory book for my dd to work through over the summer. I have no idea how she'll do with it, but she's very excited to try it. I'm feeling a bit guilty because she's been chomping at the bit with math this year, wanting more challenge, and her twin sister has been dragging her heels, kicking and screaming (needless to say, they will be separated for math from here on out). So I feel like she's been held back, and I want to give her something she can chew on.

 

Have no idea if we'd ever do a competition, but working through some of the materials will at least give me an idea of her interest/aptitude for these kinds of problems.

[PeterPan]

Well I guess I figure it's just an embarrassment factor. If you try the materials at home, you can see IF he's good at them, if he'll grow into that type of problem solving, if he enjoys it, etc. THEN you search for or form a competition group. :)

[KAR120C]

Elizabeth, thanks for the swift kick.:D I needed it as this as all new territory and my knees are a little shaky. Obtaining the materials, working through them, and getting our feet wet sounds much safer than finding a group and making a commitment. You'd never know I was a swim mom would you?:tongue_smilie:

I know we need the accountability of a group and a deadline, but it is a commitment! :) If you want a "getting your feet wet" approach then I agree with Elizabeth - buy the books and take the summer to give them a try.

[swimmermom3]

I know we need the accountability of a group and a deadline, but it is a commitment! :) If you want a "getting your feet wet" approach then I agree with Elizabeth - buy the books and take the summer to give them a try.

 

Thank you so much for the information. I would probably jump right in but a few years of experience have taught me to wait until the new swim schedule comes out, especially when the kids change squads. I am looking for other activities outside of swimming and think my son would enjoy this.

[KAR120C]

Thank you so much for the information. I would probably jump right in but a few years of experience have taught me to wait until the new swim schedule comes out, especially when the kids change squads. I am looking for other activities outside of swimming and think my son would enjoy this.

If we were involved in a sport that require the time committment that swimming does we'd be scheduling around it too! Actually just this spring I was juggling the potential calendars for science fair, MathCounts and First Lego League... if we're lucky we can fit them all in, but the seasons overlap quite a bit. It means that February through April can have a completely ridiculous schedule!

[PeterPan]

Swimmer, the AMC and Math Olympiad stuff is all set up with a sensible number of problems to a page. I took the Math Olympiad book, photocopied, and turned it into a workbook, with blank pages between for scratch. We've been doing a problem a day like that. For summer, I would up the ante and do 1-2 of those pages (5 problems per page) each day. You could do one in the morning and one in the afternoon. At that point he'd have a very good sense of how the problems work, whether he enjoys it, etc. The AMC materials are the actual problems, so it's very good practice. They're their own sort of approach or mindset, so it's good not to go in cold. Once you do them a while you get a feel for what they're wanting and how they get there.