Are the competition classes online-only? I think my elementary school DD would struggle with that for two hours. |
You can have this question in the honor class. |
yes, online only. I thought mine would struggle, but he is very engaged with it! And loves it much more so than the in person Honors of last year. |
It definitely helps with logistics. And sometimes online learning is more optimal for quiet kids. However, I think the social aspect of being in an in-person class with peers cannot be ignored. |
| I would supplement until there is real tracking in math at the school. Might be until 7th grade or 9th grade. Math clubs help too. |
They have in person competition classes at the campuses. My kid started there and was recommended to join the national program which is online only. |
Not quiet correct. There are regular math competition classes at many of the campuses. Campuses that have the regular math competition classes have two levels of the class. The national math competition program is online only. There are 200 kids selected for each grade in the national program. |
The Math Competition class is very different then the regular class. DS dropped the grade level class after 6th grade because he found it boring but continued with the math competition class. Math competition does not focus on material that would taught at that grade level in school, it is focused on problems that you would see in competition math, which tend to be more complicated word problems that require an understanding of many math disciplines. It exposes kids to a wider variety of math subjects and approaches. |
I think competition class starts in 3rd but it might be 4th grade. |
Competition class is 2 hours. It is great because the math is less straight forward and requires the kids think about their approach. Most problems have a number of different ways to answer the question and the kids will discuss their answers. And yes, most of the kids in the competition class drop the regular class. They tend to understand that material pretty easily and are looking for a challenge. It is a different approach to math. DS loves it. |
| For real fun, watch the math Counts finals on YouTube. Those kids are 7th and 8th graders. Pretty much all of them have done either AoPS or RSM or some combination of both. You can google AMC 8 or Mathcounts to see what the problems build to by MS. |
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America does a poor job of teaching math. Many top math students, whether in public school or private, had some form of math supplementing outside school.
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I think the most important thing in Math that is missing is to teach students to ask 'why'. Why is pi*r**2 the area of a circle? Are they encouraged to ask in class? Solving problems is great. But it doesn't really encourage critical thinking and cultivate interests? Many puzzles just need great pattern recognition. But deep understanding needs both intuition and training on how to think. Maybe AOPS is gonna be hopeful? CTY summer programs? |
Yes. Math and STEM need supplementation. Especially, if child interested in the sciences for college. |
But why does it need a supplement even for a school that charges tuition of $55K? Can anybody provide non-emotional charge reasons (you know, not to yell at us to go back to public school)? |