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Art of Problem Solving ideas


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Hi, parents,

AOP is a very strong program but my children find it challenging to do the work .  Any suggestion where to look for more online help? Any study group? Or any videos you find online?  One child likes to use Khan Academy.  Is there a study group online that meets regularly to help each other out?

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2 minutes ago, BXU said:

Hi, parents,

AOP is a very strong program but my children find it challenging to do the work .  Any suggestion where to look for more online help? Any study group? Or any videos you find online?  One child likes to use Khan Academy.

What kind of help do you need? 🙂 

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40 minutes ago, nature girl said:

AoPS offers self-paced online learning, as well as their regular classes. There's also Alcumus, which is free, although I'm not sure how much is teaching vs. presenting problems to solve.

Does it cost much like a course, the self-paced learning? I have one 7th grader, 9th grader, and 10th grader.  

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52 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

They have forums, I think. 

Also, I teach online classes there and would be happy to answer occasional questions if you post on here. 

thanks, is the price on the course listed for one student or can they share within the same family?

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41 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

One student, I believe. It's not cheap. 

But I meant I can answer questions for free on here, too 🙂 . 

That is nice

35 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

I'm afraid I don't know off the top of my head. Those should be on the website, though. If not, you could write them. 

Will do

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1 hour ago, Not_a_Number said:

They have forums, I think. 

Also, I teach online classes there and would be happy to answer occasional questions if you post on here. 

What is your name as a teacher?

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AOPS has a very active forum where your kids can ask for help. There, kids who know each other from taking many classes together form their own studygroup. Each text of AOPS has a very detailed Solutions manual which is very helpful for questions that your kids can not solve on their own. For the beginner books in the series, there are very detailed videos on their site grouped by topic which your kids can use. If all of these are not sufficient, then, you can sign up your child to take an online class with them and their instructors are very helpful. Go to their website and check out their online course listings and the price tag for each course, which varies.

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The best thing to do is read the book, watch the videos....and learn to read solutions for understanding/learning.   (That last point is the HARDEST thing for many students to learn to do IMHO!).  

We tend to skip the problems in the book and go straight to Alcumus for practice.  Why?   WELL, Alcumus is adaptive and has very well written solutions.  That means that if you need more practice in a particular area it will keep giving you problems until you have practiced it enough.   It also adapts in difficulty level.

 Make sure your students know that it is OK to miss problems on Alcumus.  (In fact, nearly everyone does!  Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think the highest level of "mastery" is considered anything over 85% correct or something!).  

When they miss a problem on Alcumus or just don't have a clue on how to solve it (happens to me all of the time personally!), let the system know...and then make sure they read the solution very carefully and understand each and every step.   If there is any step they don't understand, head to the forum and ask how they got to that point.   (Learning to ask specific questions is important too.  (ex. "How did they get from this step to this step in the solution?" or "I am not sure how they factored this?") Avoid vague questions. ( ex. "I need help." or "I don't understand."  If they are ever totally lost and don't even know how to ask a specific question, go back and re-read the textbook, work the example problems in the chapter, and re-watch the videos.)

 

ETA:  

Here is a tip---   Anytime there is a resource that you wish existed (like an AOPS pre-algebra study group for example), go out and create it yourself!   Typically if you wish something existed, others also wish it did too!   You an start something on meetup.com or Wordpress or Facebook or on this forum or even a student sub forum on AOPS.  (I think that is allowed on AOPS but you should double check the forum rules.).  

Edited by TheAttachedMama
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On 3/11/2021 at 2:38 PM, BXU said:

what is the rate for self paced? is is less expensive? Is there family special for students from the same household?

Not less expensive.  I was expecting it to be and was disappointed.  My son was a tester though and it was good from what I saw.

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How is your own math?  I think if I wasn’t somewhat mathy I wouldn’t try to do AOPS without a class.  And because a class isn’t in the budget I would have to end up doing something else altogether.  I am not math educated beyond high school level and that was years ago but I do enjoy math and like researching, doing extra reading and trying to help solve the problems.  The videos on the AOPS site are good and have helped clarify some stuff.  Sometimes we just have to take a step back as well.  

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