SFisher Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Hi, My son is 10yo/4th grade at public school. He’s strong in math and also loves it. He’s ID’d gifted in math at school. The school lost funding for their gifted program, so he’s getting minimal math enrichment at school (occasionally pulled out in a small group, sometimes gets open middle math challenges). He’s supported with math at home in lots of ways. I printed off a sample MOEMs math contest and explained a little about math competitions and he is interested. He knows how to approach the sample problems, so I think he could jump in feet first without much prep or coaching. I’m thinking this might be a good way to challenge him and also introduce him to other mathy kids. I looked around our school district website and didn’t find anything for his age group. I also asked the district gifted coordinator, she didn’t know of any math competitions nearby. How do I get him started? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 MOEMS is a good place to start at this age; if your school hosts it you can begin next school year in November. Also too late for this year, but the annual Math Kangaroo contest is held next month. (Registration deadline was last December.) MathCounts is a middle school contest, but he can start preparing now. Check your local middle school to see if they have a team. I have samples of all of these contest papers and more, DM me if you'd like copies. If he enjoys contests then you can generally find test papers online or purchase books at low cost for him to do for fun and practice now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 (edited) https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/List_of_United_States_elementary_school_mathematics_competitions For preparation, you can look at https://moems.org/product-category/olympiad-books/ (specifically creative problem solving in school mathematics) and/or the Borac books followed by AoPS prealgebra and/or Alcumus prealgebra at the easiest setting If you want a course, Alphastar has a course (MC15) on elementary competitions for 4th and 5th graders. https://www.mathleague.com/index.php/online-store/contest-books-grades-4-6-grades-7-8-algebra-1-high-school/36-mathleaguewebsite/shopping/52-grades-45-and-6-contest-books https://online.mathleague.com/login.php https://www.noetic-learning.com/mathcontest/pasttests.jsp https://www.noetic-learning.com/gifted/index.jsp https://www.beestar.org/exercise/samples.jsp https://www.cmleague.com/product-category/books/ https://www.matematica.pt/en/useful/kangaroo-questions.php https://ikmc.kangaroo.org.pk/past_papers/3162 Edited February 22 by Malam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Another route to pursue for information is to see if your local high schools have a math team of any sort (we have a statewide team type competition specific to our state that schools put together teams for), and if they do find out from the coach/advisor what the students coming in to that team have done to prepare at a younger age. We have a local math club that organizes participation in competitions at the K-8 level as well as running their own competition, but I think we are in an unusual situation of having more math opportunities locally than us typical. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 On 2/21/2024 at 2:38 PM, daijobu said: MOEMS is a good place to start at this age; if your school hosts it you can begin next school year in November. His school doesn’t have MOEMS. How could he still do this? Could he find another school nearby and go to competitions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 4 hours ago, SFisher said: His school doesn’t have MOEMS. How could he still do this? Could he find another school nearby and go to competitions? He probably can't participate with a different school, and it probably isn't worth the effort anyway. You will likely have better success convincing your own school to host it next year. Bookmark this URL and check it over the summer for when registration goes live. https://moems.org/online-register/ I can't find the current team registration fee, but it's in the ball park of around $100 per team per school. You can also read more about it here: https://moems.org/general/ In the meantime, your student does not need to wait to gain problem solving experience. You can purchase this book: https://www.amazon.com/Contest-Problems-Division-Richard-Kalman/dp/1882144120/ of old contest problems that provides excellent practice. Start with the contests in Level E (for elementary). When your student is routinely earning 4-5 problems correct on each contest, level up to M (for middle school level). After that you can post here or DM me for more challenging problems. If you are unable to officially participate in MOEMS next year, I would nonetheless work through the problems in the book until your student has mastered them. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/25/2024 at 1:21 PM, daijobu said: He probably can't participate with a different school, and it probably isn't worth the effort anyway. You will likely have better success convincing your own school to host it next year. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jan_miller Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Try the Noetic Learning Math Contest! It is very fun and less intense than the other. It is a good place to start! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 On 3/2/2024 at 12:35 AM, jan_miller said: Noetic Learning Math Contest Thank you! I’ve had a few people mention this one to me. I spent some time digging around their site. I like that it seems less intimidating as a first math contest, i like that the tests are online (one of my kids favors typing) and there are pictures (I have visually oriented kids). I also like that it includes 2nd grade, so my younger (also math enthusiastic) child can also participate. The “challenge math” resources are intended for gifted kids and would make good competition prep/math team/math club material. They even have some videos about approaching math problems (drawing a picture, guess and check, etc) Have you used the challenge math resources? Anything else to know about Noetic? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 On 2/21/2024 at 2:38 PM, daijobu said: MathCounts Our local middle school has Math Counts. He’s a 4th grader, so math counts would start in 6th. I’m mostly looking for enrichment/challenge now, but maybe what he does now can set him up for math counts in a few years. What would you suggest leading up to math counts? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 9 hours ago, SFisher said: What would you suggest leading up to math counts? MOEMS is a great start. When that's no longer challenging you can find old MathCounts test papers at this website: http://mathteamnyc.weebly.com/mathcounts.html You'll want to start with the "School" level, which is the easiest, then Chapter which is the first level competition round. You can also try old AMC 8s, which are also freely available at the AoPS website: https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_8_Problems_and_Solutions AMC 8 is about the same difficulty as Chapter level MathCounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Thank you! I have zero experience and want to figure it out for my kid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 On 3/13/2024 at 8:07 AM, SFisher said: Our local middle school has Math Counts. I enquired further, the middle school is no longer doing math counts If he’s going to get into math competitions in the next 4 years, we’ll have to get the school on board or start up our own math team (either through the school or locally) or do it solo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 So, a number of schools are not participating in MathCounts. If your student is homeschooled, that won't affect you because you are supposed to form a homeschool team. If your student will be enrolled in a school that as a policy will not have a MathCounts team, then your student can compete as a non-student competitor. It's more expensive (and risky) this way, so make a little effort to convince them to form one (or go rogue and form a MathCounts team representing your school with some other willing families). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jan_miller Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 (edited) On 3/13/2024 at 7:00 AM, SFisher said: Thank you! I’ve had a few people mention this one to me. I spent some time digging around their site. I like that it seems less intimidating as a first math contest, i like that the tests are online (one of my kids favors typing) and there are pictures (I have visually oriented kids). I also like that it includes 2nd grade, so my younger (also math enthusiastic) child can also participate. The “challenge math” resources are intended for gifted kids and would make good competition prep/math team/math club material. They even have some videos about approaching math problems (drawing a picture, guess and check, etc) Have you used the challenge math resources? Anything else to know about Noetic? thank you! We have participated in a couple of Noetic Maath Contests, and my kids love it! It's flexible. We can register online by ourselves, without the need to find a hosting center, though we're considering looking for one to make the experience feel even more official for the kids. Despite this, my kids still received good-looking medals, which really made them feel good– and at the end of the day, that's what matters. We just recently enrolled in Challenge Math Online. It seems to strike the right balance with weekly practice that keeps them engaged without being too overwhelming. They seems to enjoy doing it, which was a pleasant surprise/ Edited March 21 by jan_miller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFisher Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 14 hours ago, jan_miller said: They seems to enjoy doing it Thank you! This is exactly what I’m thinking about trying right now. Try a test or two as individuals. Maybe do challenge math over the summer. And if they’re enjoying it and wanting more we can look further into in person events or a math team. My older is very motivated. The younger is great at math but still quite young and super playful, so I’m stepping in lightly to see who’s interested without being intense and overwhelming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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