Doing the math books yourself... Aops

[SierraNevada]

I've been thinking lately about ordering an Aops book for myself. I expect DS to be at pre-A pretty soon and I feel like I have forgotten a lot of math beside the fact that I'm not sure I have the deep understanding or ability to explain things once we get to the higher levels. Thank goodness for the Internet. But I also just kind of for fun want to go through all the Aops books myself. I had a horrid experience in high school maths but recovered enough to make it through Diff Equations in college and enjoyed it. But it has been over 15 years and I can't say I've used it since. Where should I start? What book would be a good starting place. Are the basic algebra books that much more challenging that they'd make me struggle? Or would anyone with a good education in science breeze through them?

[sunnyday]

Have you looked at the samples? I am tempted to do the same or work through Alcumus. I was a hairs breadth from an honors distinction in physics and a graduate school track but I love what I've seen of AOPs, including intro to Alg...heck, even pre Alg is a fun thought experiment.

[Julie of KY]

It sounds like you made it pretty far in math.

 

I'd recommend starting with Intro to ALgebra. There are things (like how negative and fractional exponents) are explained that might make you understand it much better. The beginning part of the book would be easy, but as the book goes along it gets much harder and you'd probably appreciate the teaching.

 

I found the Intro to Counting and Probability book very interesting and mostly new to me and I have an engineering degree with lots of math background.

 

My impression of the Intro to Number Theory book was that much of it was review for me, but taught me how to do some problems more elegantly. The work on bases and modular arithmetic was much newer to me. I still didn't see the significance until my oldest is turning hard advanced algebra problems into number theory and solving it easily. He often says it's much easier if you just think in base 13 or whatever number fits the problem.

Recently he took 3^50 + 8^50 and changed it to mod 73 and then it was easy to tell if 73 was a factor. The point of the problem was to factor it repeatedly and then you would also find that 73 was a factor, but after much more work. He's beginning to get me to think in modular arithmetic which is a completely new way to approach problems for me.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I started AoPS Pre-A when my daughter did. I do all the problems and work through Alcumus. We each have our own book and solutions manual. We make comments as we work, share insights, and sometimes help each other. (It also adds a bit of fun competition for us.) I enjoy AoPS and sharing math time with my daughter. It's a special part of the day for us.

[Kathy in Richmond]

You'll most definitely learn something new!

 

I'm a mathematician with a doctorate & a past college teaching career. I have absolutely *loved* working through the upper level AoPS books and problem solving texts with my kids and tutoring students. Yes, I've learned new stuff & been challenged (more than once! LOL!) by the starred problems. By the time you get to the precalculus book, some of those starred problems were pulled from major math competitions, and believe me, *no one* can just sit down and whip them out. Even IMO (international math olympiad) stars can't do that. That's what I love about AoPS; there is no upper ceiling.

 

I've also personally taken one of their online classes called Tapas, which is a taste of lots of different advanced math topics. Very fun! And I've been known to play on Alcumus when I'm bored....even that is not a dead give-away. :tongue_smilie:

 

Join the fun! :D

[Lilaclady]

You may also want to start on alcumus and see where you are, then proceed from there. I work along my student but I know she will soon leave me behind.

[Runningmom80]

Oh man, if we have to do that math too, my DS may be going to PS when he gets to algebra. :laugh:

[Embassy]

I'd love to, but haven't had the time.  I'm not over my head yet with math (for the most part), but I can see that day coming.  Hopefully as my younger children become more independent, I can devote more time.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Definitely jump into Alcumus! It's free, and it will help you quickly find your holes . . . :o

 

I've been slacking on this myself the past couple of months, because I've been so busy with work, but it's my intention to work through the Intro Algebra book before dd gets there, but she's close so I'd better get cracking.  Although I really love Woodland Mist's idea of getting our own books and working on it side-by-side . . . hmmmm.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Definitely jump into Alcumus! It's free, and it will help you quickly find your holes . . . :o

 

I've been slacking on this myself the past couple of months, because I've been so busy with work, but it's my intention to work through the Intro Algebra book before dd gets there, but she's close so I'd better get cracking.  Although I really love Woodland Mist's idea of getting our own books and working on it side-by-side . . . hmmmm.

 

One reason it works better for us is that I can sneak in casual comments about a problem, and she doesn't interpret it as me teaching her. (Which can be highly offensive on some days... ;) )  It also allows us to keep flowing quickly because I already know what's going on, so I don't need to take time to read the problem, find out what she already knows, etc. We've been progressing much more quickly since we started doing it this way. It does add in time constraints, though.

[SierraNevada]

So it looks like Intro to Algebra would be a good starting point? I guess, so long as Aops pre-A agrees with DS's learning style, I will be buying all the books at some point. I do like the idea of working them along side DS. Maybe I'll just hold off and do that when the time comes.

[acurtis75]

I've been playing a bit with alcumus and the first few chapters of pre-algebra. I plan to work through the books as dd does because she is young and will possibly need my input. I really enjoy the material. I dropped out of college to start a business with dh so I didn't do much college math other than calculus but I've always had an aptitude for math and feel like I'll be able to get through it. 

 

When I first found AOPs and Beast Academy I was immediately remorseful that no one introduced me to problem solving the way they teach it when I was a student. I would have loved math competitions and had I learned the AOPs way I'm sure I could have done well.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've been playing a bit with alcumus and the first few chapters of pre-algebra. I plan to work through the books as dd does because she is young and will possibly need my input. I really enjoy the material. I dropped out of college to start a business with dh so I didn't do much college math other than calculus but I've always had an aptitude for math and feel like I'll be able to get through it. 

 

When I first found AOPs and Beast Academy I was immediately remorseful that no one introduced me to problem solving the way they teach it when I was a student. I would have loved math competitions and had I learned the AOPs way I'm sure I could have done well.

 

I felt the exact same way! regrets,  :sad:

[Luckymama]

I've worked through many AoPS books (PreAlgebra, Intro to Alg, Intro to C&P, Intro to NT, Geometry, Intermediate Algebra) ahead of dd. Sometimes I've only been an hour ahead :lol: though I do go through big chunks during summers.

 

I love math. I love AoPS. Some of the problems so difficult that I am :eek:

 

I think it's good for dd to see me struggle, erase the whiteboard, try a different method, repeat, mumble to myself about stupid sign errors, and then do a happy dance when I am correct. Perseverance is very important :)

[boscopup]

I started with the Prealgebra book, despite having a EE degree and having done plenty of higher math in high school and college (I thought the AP BC Calculus exam was ridiculously easy and knew I had a 5 walking out the door - I was correct).

 

It was good to get the refresher of topics I hadn't seen in a LONG time. The Prealgebra book has hard problems, so I still got some wrong.

 

That reminds me... I should probably pick that back up again. I think I stopped somewhere in chapter 7, and my son will start chapter 6 when we start school up again at the end of June. I've really appreciated the ability to give useful questions when he's stuck on a problem, though the last few chapters he has learned how to work through things himself. (Insert happy dance)

[EndOfOrdinary]

I think the book to start with depends on exactly what you want to get out of it. If you are going through it to increase understanding, then Pre-A would work well. You more than likely know how to do all the problems, but may have not seen it presented in the way AoPS talks about. I frequently am surprised and smile at the way the book approaches the concept. Not only does it create a better understanding for me, but it often gives me a completely other angle to explain math from.

 

If you are wanting a refresher or to fill in gaps then Intro to Algebra might be better. I highly doubt there is anything in PreA that will completely stump you concept wise, thought many problems are difficult. In the Algebra book you might hit something puzzling once or twice.

[acurtis75]

I think the book to start with depends on exactly what you want to get out of it. If you are going through it to increase understanding, then Pre-A would work well. You more than likely know how to do all the problems, but may have not seen it presented in the way AoPS talks about. I frequently am surprised and smile at the way the book approaches the concept. Not only does it create a better understanding for me, but it often gives me a completely other angle to explain math from.

 

 

 

I think this is a great point. I haven't gotten to any problems yet that I can't do (I'm only a few chapters in so that might change) but often after I read the approach in the book I can get the solution more quickly and explain it better. This is the exact opposite of the way I feel about Singapore teaching. For some reason the more I read the Singapore explanations the less I am able to explain to dd. It's not an issue of being able to work the problem but I just prefer the AOPs approach and thought processes for getting the answer. 

 

We didn't use the whole Singapore program...just CWP so I may have felt differently if we used it as a complete program.

[SierraNevada]

I just ordered the Pre-A book. I feels odd to order a math book of a level that I completed in 7th grade. I hope though that it will enable me to teach it better but at the very least I will have it for when DS is ready. I'm excited to see what aops is all about. BA has even taught me new things--or things in a new light of understanding. So I don't doubt that Pre-A will do the same thing.

 

I love the idea of working simulateously through the higher books. I hope to do that when he is older. As for now, I will just get to know the aops approach better so I will know when he will actually be ready for it. Pre-A he will be ready for within a year, but I have no intention of starting Aops that young.

[EndOfOrdinary]

We started PreA when my son was eight. The material probably should have been presented at seven, but I didn't know of a AoPS then. The material has all been review, but working through being frustrated was the largest hurdle. If we had started younger, and not used Khan Academy as much, it would have helped immeasurably. My son got used to having the answers and not having to think. It was detrimental. Had we started AoPS first and just moved slowly it would have been much less emotionally brutal.

 

It has nothing to do with accelerating and more with not setting the kid up for failure. AoPS is designed to be a struggle regardless. By providing what I thought was a lighter introduction I only made the actual text much harder. As an adult this was very easy for me to see - he knows the material, if he just doesn't panic and take it personally we would be done by now. This was not readily apparent for my son. We are more than great now, but this year was rough at times.