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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
No way they are scoring 30+ points on the Mathcounts state round with just Algebra I + school coaching.  If a kid truly did that, then the kid is a math prodigy with parents who severely dropped the ball.  
[/quote]

You don't have to be a math prodigy for 30+.  Take a look at the state round.  It is easy to see how someone gets to 30+.

25 of the first 26 sprint and #28 are doable, as well as all the targets.  
That would be a score of 42, leaving plenty of room to get 30+.
The geometry that is needed is largely picked up in practices or self study.  ES Math Olympiad covers many of the geometry topics, though usually not circles like target #4.[/quote]

Here's problem 28:
Suppose x and y are real numbers for which 2xy + 16 = x^2 and 2xy + 9 = 4y^2
If y > 0, what is the value of x + y? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.

You really think that's doable for a kid in Algebra I?

All of the targets are doable?  You really think a kid in Algebra I has any chance at all to solve #4?  
https://www.mathcounts.org/sites/default/files/2023%20State%20Competition%20Target%20Round.pdf

Any kids in Algebra I who can self-study and glean enough from their school club to solve problems like this are truly remarkable kids.  It's far outside of the norm.[/quote]

Pretty remarkable.  The hard part about sprint 28 is getting there.  I think this kid would have gotten the question if he had a few minutes.  Similar questions were covered in practice, though not quite as hard as this one.      
This student did get question 4.  Apparently his coach was not able to do it while looking at it at states, just guessing it was a right angle, even though this coach had explained the specific concept to them several times about slopes and right angles.

[/quote]

Again, I'm amazed by this story.  You're saying there is a 7th grader who is:
-taking school Algebra I and mostly self-studying contest math
-highly to profoundly gifted in math based on the ability to self study and the ability to be one of the top kids in the state in competitions
-presumably attending school in Ashburn (LCPS and either Eagle Ridge or Stone Hill MS)
-presumably Asian (Ashburn demographics)
-presumably wealthy(Ashburn demographics)
...but the parents haven't put the kid in outside math classes?  I mean, basically every kid in Ashburn who is either Asian or wealthy is taking outside math classes, except apparently this one math genius, who is just self studying his way to Mathcounts Nationals.

Yeah.  Totally plausible.  [/quote]

DP, but sometimes "self-study" means you're basically tackling courses on your own. Maybe this is what the PP meant. AoPS online, for example, which many of the math contest kids use, including my own daughter, is mostly self-driven and there is not that much support from a teacher, so maybe the PP doesn't count it as a "class." Whatever you call it, you still have to have the discipline to get through number theory, and counting and probability, in addition to covering algebra, geometry, trig, etc. I also find it wildly implausible that some kid only learned their math from algebra 1 at school and attended after school math club once or twice a week and learned all this material from those two sources alone. [/quote] 
The coach does give out a lot of homework.  Also, Virginia was down this year, so the nearly making nationals would not have been the case in other years.
The kid has not taken any paid classes with AOPS, but may have done alcumus.
We'll see what happens next year, but of course then the kids will be in geometry.
Also, any other year, would have been in geometry in 6th grade, along with some of his teammates who alternate wins in various contests, like TJIMO, Carderock, Blair.[/quote]

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