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[quote=Anonymous][quote=pettifogger][quote=Anonymous][quote=pettifogger]
I don't want to detract from Buchholz and his math team's achievements (which are still impressive), but calling them greatest by the WSJ is not only meaningless without specific measures, but also just plain misinformed when compared to other elite high school math contests such as the AMCs and HMMT. Even at the middle school level, one will find many challenging questions on recent years of the national Mathcounts round that are significantly more difficult than what is found on the MAT. 
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I agree with everything you've posted, but it is worth noting that Buchholz had a very impressive performance on the AMCs, as well.  They had over 20 AIME qualifiers from the AMC 12A alone.

Greatest math team in the country?  No.  [b]Greatest math team in a low-middle income smallish town?[/b]  Quite possibly.[/quote]

Given the size of their math team and the amount of consistent, targeted practice, I'd definitely expect them to have multiple AMC qualifiers. Studying for the AMC would also provide benefits to improving on the MAT, and vice-versa, so it's in their best interest to tackle problems at the AMC level. However, I would not expect there to be very many kids that can pass the AIME and have some significant score at the olympiads. There should likely be a few, but not a significant number, unless they also target it (which requires additional skillsets than what's on the MAT, and significantly more time to learn more math).[/quote]

If you have access to professor's kids through this, I'm less impressed.  Also the low-middle income town factor makes it more likely to work in some ways because there are fewer competing activities so you can have this intensive focus.
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