Advanced middle school math

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^Forgot to add:
The types of kids who end up accelerated in math usually LOVE math. It's a travesty to take a kid's favorite school subject and turn it into a boring slog. It also tends to make them dislike school as a whole.

Really, it doesn't make sense to accelerate beyond algebra in 7th or 8th. It's far better to find other ways to enrich the curriculum. Do more interesting assignments and projects, don't just fly through topics. Acceleration becomes the lazy way because that curriculum is already drafted. (If you don't accelerate outside the classroom, the kid will still see new topics each year. Maybe not as fas as they could learn them, but hopefully in more depth with enrichment activities.)

If you have a kid that good at math, sign them up for something like Odyssey of the Mind and have them do the balsa problem. They can immerse themselves in statics and structural engineering with no limit to what they can teach themselves.

-- STEM PhD who loves math who won the graduation award at my university as the top math student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

Mine first skipped ahead in math in 1st grade in public school. He skipped one more time after that in public. Public schools are too rigid and have too many logistical issues for handling kids this advanced, so we left for greener pastures. He first qualified for AIME in 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Forgot to add:
The types of kids who end up accelerated in math usually LOVE math. It's a travesty to take a kid's favorite school subject and turn it into a boring slog. It also tends to make them dislike school as a whole.

Really, it doesn't make sense to accelerate beyond algebra in 7th or 8th. It's far better to find other ways to enrich the curriculum. Do more interesting assignments and projects, don't just fly through topics. Acceleration becomes the lazy way because that curriculum is already drafted. (If you don't accelerate outside the classroom, the kid will still see new topics each year. Maybe not as fas as they could learn them, but hopefully in more depth with enrichment activities.)

If you have a kid that good at math, sign them up for something like Odyssey of the Mind and have them do the balsa problem. They can immerse themselves in statics and structural engineering with no limit to what they can teach themselves.

-- STEM PhD who loves math who won the graduation award at my university as the top math student

I'd love it if the schools offered a richer, deeper curriculum so that kids wouldn't need to accelerate so much and wouldn't be so bored. They don't and won't. Schools always take the easiest path, which means a very shallow math curriculum and accelerating the kids above that level. They have no will to develop a richer, deeper curriculum and no ability to meet gifted learners at the proper level.

My kid has taken the full AoPS series, so I'm not worried about a lack of depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Forgot to add:
The types of kids who end up accelerated in math usually LOVE math. It's a travesty to take a kid's favorite school subject and turn it into a boring slog. It also tends to make them dislike school as a whole.

Really, it doesn't make sense to accelerate beyond algebra in 7th or 8th. It's far better to find other ways to enrich the curriculum. Do more interesting assignments and projects, don't just fly through topics. Acceleration becomes the lazy way because that curriculum is already drafted. (If you don't accelerate outside the classroom, the kid will still see new topics each year. Maybe not as fas as they could learn them, but hopefully in more depth with enrichment activities.)

If you have a kid that good at math, sign them up for something like Odyssey of the Mind and have them do the balsa problem. They can immerse themselves in statics and structural engineering with no limit to what they can teach themselves.

-- STEM PhD who loves math who won the graduation award at my university as the top math student

Most public school teachers have little time to do enrichment. Faced with a choice of 1 or 2 kids who are advanced v/s several who are struggling or just getting by, teachers (rightly perhaps) opt for helping the larger cohort. Besides, some kids are genuinely interested in pure math for math's sake (abstract algebra, number theory, elementary analysis etc.) Odyssey of the Mind won't be appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

DP but my kid was accelerated in middle school. Doubled Algebra 1 and Geometry in 6th, finished Algebra 2 in 7th and doing precalculus online in 8th. Would like to do calculus now but school system won't allow AP classes before high school. Qualified for AIME and USAJMO in 7th.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not sure how far he could realistically be accelerated. I could potentially have him take Alg I in 6th grade- which I’m certain he would test into. But then he would be placing into calculus by 9th grade, then what?

Perhaps math competitions would be an avenue to explore. Those with experience, tell me more. I’ve never heard of these. How do we get involved? Any ones you recommended? We are in Midwest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not sure how far he could realistically be accelerated. I could potentially have him take Alg I in 6th grade- which I’m certain he would test into. But then he would be placing into calculus by 9th grade, then what?

Perhaps math competitions would be an avenue to explore. Those with experience, tell me more. I’ve never heard of these. How do we get involved? Any ones you recommended? We are in Midwest

Check with your school system about classes at the local community college. Perhaps your school system offers multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra in high school. Those would be the logical next steps after AP Calc. You can also inquire about research programs. There are several at the national level (MIT-PRIMES, PROMYS, Euler, HCSSiM, Ross Mathematics Program) for high schoolers and possibly some motivated 8th graders. I wouldn't be surprised if your local university has one of these or at least a Math Circle, which is a terrific way to learn about formal math in the real world (Nim style games, graph coloring, algebraic number theory).

Math competitions are open to everyone. You can download pretty much the entire set of past competition problems to see if this is your kid's cup of tea. Many schools have clubs (AMC-8/Mathcounts in middle schools; AMC-10/12/AIME in high school). These competitions cover most of the material in school but are quite different and challenging - getting students to think beyond what they learn in class and how to apply the concepts. AOPS online is a great resource, especially the forums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Forgot to add:
The types of kids who end up accelerated in math usually LOVE math. It's a travesty to take a kid's favorite school subject and turn it into a boring slog. It also tends to make them dislike school as a whole.

Really, it doesn't make sense to accelerate beyond algebra in 7th or 8th. It's far better to find other ways to enrich the curriculum. Do more interesting assignments and projects, don't just fly through topics. Acceleration becomes the lazy way because that curriculum is already drafted. (If you don't accelerate outside the classroom, the kid will still see new topics each year. Maybe not as fas as they could learn them, but hopefully in more depth with enrichment activities.)

If you have a kid that good at math, sign them up for something like Odyssey of the Mind and have them do the balsa problem. They can immerse themselves in statics and structural engineering with no limit to what they can teach themselves.

-- STEM PhD who loves math who won the graduation award at my university as the top math student

Most public school teachers have little time to do enrichment. Faced with a choice of 1 or 2 kids who are advanced v/s several who are struggling or just getting by, teachers (rightly perhaps) opt for helping the larger cohort. Besides, some kids are genuinely interested in pure math for math's sake (abstract algebra, number theory, elementary analysis etc.) Odyssey of the Mind won't be appropriate.

Wouldn't be appropriate? Seriously? Perhaps push your child to stretch themselves. If they're so gifted, they should be able to learn something else too.

It's one thing for a PhD student or post doc to choose a specialization in a particular area of math, but ridiculous to limit an 11 year old to only one aspect of math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

DP but my kid was accelerated in middle school. Doubled Algebra 1 and Geometry in 6th, finished Algebra 2 in 7th and doing precalculus online in 8th. Would like to do calculus now but school system won't allow AP classes before high school. Qualified for AIME and USAJMO in 7th.

How did you get the (public?) school to double up on math classes in 6th grade? The school system seems to be against that, from my experience. I hoping the school allows DS to test out of Algebra instead.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

DP but my kid was accelerated in middle school. Doubled Algebra 1 and Geometry in 6th, finished Algebra 2 in 7th and doing precalculus online in 8th. Would like to do calculus now but school system won't allow AP classes before high school. Qualified for AIME and USAJMO in 7th.

How did you get the (public?) school to double up on math classes in 6th grade? The school system seems to be against that, from my experience. I hoping the school allows DS to test out of Algebra instead.

Thanks

Our school system somehow allowed it - it was the pandemic and the math specialist made a convincing case. For another kid, it meant no PE or electives but they were fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested in how the public schools handled your kid's accelerated curriculum? When did he start the acceleated path in the school (I assume he was already doing a bunch of stuff at home) Did you have to bus him to the high school?

On a related note, is your kid studying to qualify or take the AIME or USAMO?

Thanks!

DP but my kid was accelerated in middle school. Doubled Algebra 1 and Geometry in 6th, finished Algebra 2 in 7th and doing precalculus online in 8th. Would like to do calculus now but school system won't allow AP classes before high school. Qualified for AIME and USAJMO in 7th.

How did you get the (public?) school to double up on math classes in 6th grade? The school system seems to be against that, from my experience. I hoping the school allows DS to test out of Algebra instead.

Thanks

Our school system somehow allowed it - it was the pandemic and the math specialist made a convincing case. For another kid, it meant no PE or electives but they were fine with it.

Aah - makes sense. Thanks. The pandemic definitely allowed DS to do math at his speed rather than the class speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not sure how far he could realistically be accelerated. I could potentially have him take Alg I in 6th grade- which I’m certain he would test into. But then he would be placing into calculus by 9th grade, then what?

Perhaps math competitions would be an avenue to explore. Those with experience, tell me more. I’ve never heard of these. How do we get involved? Any ones you recommended? We are in Midwest

Sorry if this is long winded. I'm going to stick with the contests most easily available for anyone to sign up.
-AMC 8 takes place in January and has to be administered through a school group, but anyone should be able to sign up. If your child's school is not offering it, go here https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-8/locations and click on the zip code search to find the nearest place offering the test. You should be able to sign your kid up through them. You may have to wait until November for schools to be registered for the test. Tests from previous years are here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_8_Problems_and_Solutions

-Mathcounts takes place in February and is only open to 6th-8th graders. Generally, you sign up with your school. If your school is not offering it, you can sign your child up as a non school competitor. Last year's competitions are here: https://www.mathcounts.org/resources/past-competitions

-Continental Math League https://www.cmleague.com allows you to enroll your child as a homeschooler if your school is not offering the program.

-Mathleague.org runs elementary contests for 3rd-6th grade and middle school contests for 6th-8th. Anyone can sign their school up to compete, and then you can register for any contest you'd like to attend. Many of the contests are online. The website has some free practice tests.

-Math Kangaroo https://mathkangaroo.org/mks/ lets anyone sign up. You just need to find the closest testing center and sign up through them. The problems are a little less math based and a little more logical reasoning.

-MOEMS must be run through a school, but many schools offer it. You should ask your child's school whether they're willing to do MOEMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
-- STEM PhD who loves math who won the graduation award at my university as the top math student

Wait. What? There are STEM PhD programs that give special awards to the top math student getting a PhD. That's just ludicrous. The fact you're bragging about it as if it gives you opinion any weight is even more absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS/Algebra in 6th

MCPS will allow Algebra in 6th, but it's dependent on the school. Some of the wealthy ES offer IM in 5th or accelerate students in the 99% on their MAP-M test to Algebra in 6th. Our MS TPMS will only allow this for kids who come from a home school where the kids had IM in 5th. There are many kids who are even more advanced whose home school didn't allow this. They prefer to provide a deeper curriculum.