Reply to Math competitions for Mathematically Gifted kid (7 year old)

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Math competitions for Mathematically Gifted kid (7 year old)"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I agree there is natural talent when it comes to the top performers. But it’s like 90% practice and persistence and preparation (AKA tiger mom element) and then among those kids who do this best the amount of natural talent will then separate the 1st place national winner from the 2nd place etc. These kids (like top basketball players) are practicing the most. Hours and hours a day. That’s at least 90% of the equation.

But. Big but. This is concerning contest math. Which is different than actual math. [/quote]

I kind of agree.  For mathcounts nationals, there's maybe a pool of 2000 kids who have the math aptitude to end up in the top 50.  Kids below that aren't going to be able to practice or tiger mom their way into that elite group.  But among those 2000 kids, the difference maker between making the top 50 and not doing so will be who is practicing the most.  I would guess that there are many non-Asian kids among that 2000 who don't think practicing hours per day for mathcounts is a valuable use of their time.

Contest math is different than actual math to some degree.  I have yet to encounter a kid who excelled at contest math who wasn't also excelling at actual math.  I have encountered many kids who excel at actual math but perform poorly at contests.  Those top 50 kids in Mathcounts are almost certainly taking calculus or beyond as 8th graders and have breezed through regular school math.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics