Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP. What types of things do you mean about the classes adding context, PP? Is there peer interaction? Do you find the peers to be supportive and is everyone at the right level? Does the class hear each other's questions in office hours? (My child is shy so hearing other questions would be helpful.) We don't live near a location so we'd need the online classes. Do you think they would have the same benefits as the in person classes?

For whatever reason, the AoPS books are visually unappealing and difficult to read. The mathematical concepts and explanations are solid, but it all just feels somewhat hard to follow on its own. They're very unlike the Beast Academy books in this way.

In the classes, the teacher will introduce the topic, lay whatever groundwork, explain things, and build up to the very hard stuff. The teacher will ask leading questions and give the kids time to reply.

You actually have two different options for online classes. You can take the ones through AoPS Online, which are all text based. You can't hear the teacher or other students say anything, but you can read it in the interactive chat. Everyone can see the full interactive chat during office hours, and the message board is very supportive.

If you want a more normal class experience, you can also take classes in the AoPS Academy- Online campus. These classes are over Zoom and will have a live teacher, live classmates, group collaboration, and so on. The classes are smaller, and your child will get a lot more personal attention. The biggest drawback to the Academy classes is that they cost more money than the text based ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP. What types of things do you mean about the classes adding context, PP? Is there peer interaction? Do you find the peers to be supportive and is everyone at the right level? Does the class hear each other's questions in office hours? (My child is shy so hearing other questions would be helpful.) We don't live near a location so we'd need the online classes. Do you think they would have the same benefits as the in person classes?

For whatever reason, the AoPS books are visually unappealing and difficult to read. The mathematical concepts and explanations are solid, but it all just feels somewhat hard to follow on its own. They're very unlike the Beast Academy books in this way.

In the classes, the teacher will introduce the topic, lay whatever groundwork, explain things, and build up to the very hard stuff. The teacher will ask leading questions and give the kids time to reply.

You actually have two different options for online classes. You can take the ones through AoPS Online, which are all text based. You can't hear the teacher or other students say anything, but you can read it in the interactive chat. Everyone can see the full interactive chat during office hours, and the message board is very supportive.

If you want a more normal class experience, you can also take classes in the AoPS Academy- Online campus. These classes are over Zoom and will have a live teacher, live classmates, group collaboration, and so on. The classes are smaller, and your child will get a lot more personal attention. The biggest drawback to the Academy classes is that they cost more money than the text based ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That being said, there are reasons why AoPS might not work even for kids who are very bright at math.

Whoops. Forgot one:
4. Kids really do need to put in the work to be successful. Kids who only show up to class and do the minimal required homework problems are unlikely to reach the level of understanding that they need. The kids are supposed to read the lessons in the textbook before each class, attend class, ask on the message board or ask the teacher if they don't understand something, do lots of alcumus problems in the lesson topic, and then spend sufficient time on the homework. Many kids try to shortcut the process.

I think that it would be helpful to discuss the age for some of these issues. DS is 8 and did not need to do much more then attend the class and do the homework assigned. I don't think he did any advanced reading and we did not insist that he do he extra problems out of the workbook or anything like that. It sounds like you are talking about older kids in Algebra and the like. I would fully understand that those classes require more work then my third grader had to put into his class this past year.

My 10-year-old is currently taking 7B Contest Algebra from AoPS. He really enjoys it. He almost never cracks the book and gets what he needs from the classes. He does do about half the homework each week. So yes they could do more but again they're just 10 so I don't really want to push it, and despite their lack of dedication they still managed to come in 1st on contest day so they must be doing something right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
That being said, there are reasons why AoPS might not work even for kids who are very bright at math.

Whoops. Forgot one:
4. Kids really do need to put in the work to be successful. Kids who only show up to class and do the minimal required homework problems are unlikely to reach the level of understanding that they need. The kids are supposed to read the lessons in the textbook before each class, attend class, ask on the message board or ask the teacher if they don't understand something, do lots of alcumus problems in the lesson topic, and then spend sufficient time on the homework. Many kids try to shortcut the process.

I think that it would be helpful to discuss the age for some of these issues. DS is 8 and did not need to do much more then attend the class and do the homework assigned. I don't think he did any advanced reading and we did not insist that he do he extra problems out of the workbook or anything like that. It sounds like you are talking about older kids in Algebra and the like. I would fully understand that those classes require more work then my third grader had to put into his class this past year.

My 10-year-old is currently taking 7B Contest Algebra from AoPS. He really enjoys it. He almost never cracks the book and gets what he needs from the classes. He does do about half the homework each week. So yes they could do more but again they're just 10 so I don't really want to push it, and despite their lack of dedication they still managed to come in 1st on contest day so they must be doing something right.

Did your 10 yo do Beast Academy before getting to 7B Contest Algebra? If so, did they do it alone with books, or online, or in classes? I'm imagining you'd have to start very young to get there at 10 if you do classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP. What types of things do you mean about the classes adding context, PP? Is there peer interaction? Do you find the peers to be supportive and is everyone at the right level? Does the class hear each other's questions in office hours? (My child is shy so hearing other questions would be helpful.) We don't live near a location so we'd need the online classes. Do you think they would have the same benefits as the in person classes?

For whatever reason, the AoPS books are visually unappealing and difficult to read. The mathematical concepts and explanations are solid, but it all just feels somewhat hard to follow on its own. They're very unlike the Beast Academy books in this way.

In the classes, the teacher will introduce the topic, lay whatever groundwork, explain things, and build up to the very hard stuff. The teacher will ask leading questions and give the kids time to reply.

You actually have two different options for online classes. You can take the ones through AoPS Online, which are all text based. You can't hear the teacher or other students say anything, but you can read it in the interactive chat. Everyone can see the full interactive chat during office hours, and the message board is very supportive.

If you want a more normal class experience, you can also take classes in the AoPS Academy- Online campus. These classes are over Zoom and will have a live teacher, live classmates, group collaboration, and so on. The classes are smaller, and your child will get a lot more personal attention. The biggest drawback to the Academy classes is that they cost more money than the text based ones.

Thank you for this insight. As a teacher this makes me wonder what book or content bank the teachers are working from (if it isn't the AoPS text). Does that make sense? You can't have a uniform class if teacher's are working from their own background, so they must all be working from something. But if it isn't the AoPS book (and is something better!) why not publish that instead?

Does my point make sense?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP. What types of things do you mean about the classes adding context, PP? Is there peer interaction? Do you find the peers to be supportive and is everyone at the right level? Does the class hear each other's questions in office hours? (My child is shy so hearing other questions would be helpful.) We don't live near a location so we'd need the online classes. Do you think they would have the same benefits as the in person classes?

For whatever reason, the AoPS books are visually unappealing and difficult to read. The mathematical concepts and explanations are solid, but it all just feels somewhat hard to follow on its own. They're very unlike the Beast Academy books in this way.

In the classes, the teacher will introduce the topic, lay whatever groundwork, explain things, and build up to the very hard stuff. The teacher will ask leading questions and give the kids time to reply.

You actually have two different options for online classes. You can take the ones through AoPS Online, which are all text based. You can't hear the teacher or other students say anything, but you can read it in the interactive chat. Everyone can see the full interactive chat during office hours, and the message board is very supportive.

If you want a more normal class experience, you can also take classes in the AoPS Academy- Online campus. These classes are over Zoom and will have a live teacher, live classmates, group collaboration, and so on. The classes are smaller, and your child will get a lot more personal attention. The biggest drawback to the Academy classes is that they cost more money than the text based ones.

Thank you for this insight. As a teacher this makes me wonder what book or content bank the teachers are working from (if it isn't the AoPS text). Does that make sense? You can't have a uniform class if teacher's are working from their own background, so they must all be working from something. But if it isn't the AoPS book (and is something better!) why not publish that instead?

Does my point make sense?

I don't understand your point. What makes you think the classes are (or should be) completely "uniform"? They're probably just working from the book with some of their own explanations thrown in.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve read elsewhere (Glassdoor) that the teachers have a script they follow. A poster here says the class explanation is different from what’s in the book (and is better). This raises the question why that better explanation isn’t in the books.

Anonymous wrote:We've had a pretty good experience with aops math though it's quite puzzle-centric. Has anyone tried their language courses? I'd really like something that develops good critical reading and writing skills...

Anonymous wrote:We've had a pretty good experience with aops math though it's quite puzzle-centric. Has anyone tried their language courses? I'd really like something that develops good critical reading and writing skills...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AOPS isn't for most kids. They spend 75% of their time focusing on esoteric contest math tricks while skipping over basic skills.

+1 You nailed it. I'm a math teacher btw.

They are not skipping anything, they expect that kids to already know the basic skills. As many posters have said, it is not a program to build foundational skills. There is an expectation that the kids will have those skills.

Students at our location are evaluated by one of the Teachers or Administrators. DS was given a series of questions, he provided an answer and the evaluator asked him how he had solved the problem. DS would give his explanation and they would discuss different methods for solving the same problem. The problems were on grade level and meant to make sure that he had the basics down. The explanation insured that he understood the principles behind the basics.

I have been told by others that AoPS has no problem with recommending that a 3rd grader take the 2nd grade math because of where they were with their skills or holding kids back the following years because there was concern that the kid did not have a firm enough grasp of the material. We are waiting on the Teachers evaluation from this year.

There are programs that are great for kids who need to build a foundation, that is not AoPS.

Math teacher back. I never said it was for foundational skills. I said that the program is about 90% (the other poster said 75% but I think it is around 90%) quick math cheats and tricks, and 10% real, enriching mathematical and concept-building experiences. If that's what you're about then go for it.