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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]1/100 middle school kids participate in competitive math. If that. And there are a few schools who make all students take the test whether they want to or not. We like that though because it brings down the curve![/quote]

Sure.  A much much smaller fraction participate in competitive skiing, and unlike the math participants, the skiiers aren't self-selecting for high levels of talent. There, it's more of a rich person thing or a "your whole family does it" thing.  It's a very bad example.  If you simply must compare it to a sport, I'd compare it with gymnastics, which is still not mainstream, but has a larger participant base.  Also, by middle school both gymnastics teams and competitive math teams are filled with kids who are both naturally talented and hard workers.   I doubt that any academic competitive activities have a much larger participant base.

Practice is undoubtedly important.  But the insinuations here that math contests are such a fringe thing and that *any* kid could earn high scores with enough practice are simply incorrect.  There are a lot of kids in the AoPS forums who are working their tails off and practicing a lot, but who still aren't earning the high scores.  It would be very insulting and offensive to those kids to tell them that they didn't practice enough.

Math contests and math in general are exactly like every single other activity:  Practice + talent is the key to success.  You can't reach the highest levels or win awards with only one or the other, but not both.  [/quote]

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