You could try printing out sheets from the SAAB MathCounts site. They are a little easier, for a 4th grader maybe they could get 5 out of 15.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if her school does not sponsor any of these competitions or any math clubs? Does she need to join RSM to participate? If I could help start a math club at her school, what type of math club would it be? For instance, mathcount?

If you want to start a math club at her school, I'd suggest these:
-MOEMS is a great introductory contest for kids who've never attempted contest math before. https://moems.org/
-CML is another great introductory math contest. Either of these could easily be run as part of an afterschool math club. https://www.cmleague.com/

-Math Kangaroo is a standalone contest, and anyone can register. You just need to sign up with the nearest testing center. https://www.mathkangaroo.org
-Math league also has standalone online contests every month. They also sometimes have in person contests. https://www.mathleague.org

The Mathcounts competition is strictly for grades 6-8, but they have online practice resources.

A couple more grade specific options that some local schools and afterschool programs participate in:
Virginia Math League / mathleague.com (different than mathleague.org) - 1 contest administered in spring
Noetic Math Contest / https://www.noetic-learning.com/mathcontest/ - 2 contests per year (fall/spring)

Both of these are individual written contests that would be proctored at the school.

Oops! Just realized she actually did CML through school. She got 1st place in her grade last year. Totally forgot about it because we rarely talk about it at home. And it’s not a “club” per se at her school. Kids don’t meet afterschool to study for it. I’ll look into other programs.

The above info is so helpful! Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:What if her school does not sponsor any of these competitions or any math clubs? Does she need to join RSM to participate? If I could help start a math club at her school, what type of math club would it be? For instance, mathcount?

If you want to start a math club at her school, I'd suggest these:
-MOEMS is a great introductory contest for kids who've never attempted contest math before. https://moems.org/
-CML is another great introductory math contest. Either of these could easily be run as part of an afterschool math club. https://www.cmleague.com/

-Math Kangaroo is a standalone contest, and anyone can register. You just need to sign up with the nearest testing center. https://www.mathkangaroo.org
-Math league also has standalone online contests every month. They also sometimes have in person contests. https://www.mathleague.org

The Mathcounts competition is strictly for grades 6-8, but they have online practice resources.

Anonymous wrote:What if her school does not sponsor any of these competitions or any math clubs? Does she need to join RSM to participate? If I could help start a math club at her school, what type of math club would it be? For instance, mathcount?

You don’t have to join RSM, there are other math competition programs. My kid does RSM so it is what I know so it is the example I use. Google Math Clubs or Math Competition programs and see what comes up. If you look at the Math Kangaroo results you can see what programs kids took the test through and get an idea for the programs, the results list kid name, program, and city for each state.

AoPS has math classes that are good, we did those for a year but DS wanted an in-person class and RSM was a lot closer so we moved there. There are also the books and there is an online program.

Mathcounts is for 6-8 graders so you have time to wait. You can start a math club at school but it is a good amount of work, my DH ran one at DSs ES, The first trimester (our school had 3 EC sessions per year) had a lot of kids in it that were there because the parents thought math would be good for their kid and the kid didn’t want to be there. The last two trimesters the kids who were there were interested in the math competition practice. It is a lot of work putting together material that is appropriate for all the different age groups. And you have to be ready to teaach the material.

Most of the MS have a mathcounts club at the school. Some are hard to get into because of the level of interest.

What if her school does not sponsor any of these competitions or any math clubs? Does she need to join RSM to participate? If I could help start a math club at her school, what type of math club would it be? For instance, mathcount?

That is cool that she took the test and did as well as she did. Ignore the person who is like “some4th graders get an 18+” Yes, some do but they are very rare. The fact that she was interested in challenging herself with the competition is important.

If she enjoyed the AMC 8 she might enjoy other math competitions. My kid does a math competition class through RSM. AoPS has some math competition books but you would probably want to stick to Beast Academy books. You might want to look at Math Kangaroo and RSMs International Math Competition, although it is too late for this years IMC. Both are individual tests that are grade based. There are other comps available but I cannot remember which ones are team based and which ones are individual.

If you kid are really exceptional, teacher will contact/guide you. In our ES, we have only two kids who skipped more than AAP math. All of them were identified by school/teacher first.

Another kid’s mom pushed and it was not successful.

At this point, I hope she can find/join any math competition class while learning next grade level math.

I appreciate your responses. She does a science related competition. She enjoys it so much! But I haven’t heard of math clubs at her school. We will look into that. I think that’s a great idea. She loves working with her friends in competitions. It’s like more playdate together.

I’m pretty chill, but at same time curious about my child’s potential. Maybe she feels more excited if she is learning more challenging stuff? I have no way to know yet. Anyway, by no means I think 9/25 is an outstanding score. But I think she has solid foundation so far.

Out of pure curiosity, what aptitude does a child has who thrives with super accelerated curriculum, like agebra 1 in 6th grade? Could someone describe it to me? I don’t know anyone personally who did that.

Relax.

9/25 is a motivating score for a 4th grader. But the problems get harder later in the test, so there's still a lot to learn before being a "master" of Prealgebra (AMC 8).

Keep going through Beast Academy if she enjoys it, and then Prealgebra and beyond. (Warning, Prealgebra is a lot less "fun" for little kids than Beast Academy, which causes many kids to stop for a year or two and then pick it up again in middle school, unless parent is strongly guiding).

If the kid is willing to work outside of school, then you don't need to jump 1,2,3,4,5 years ahead immediately. Let the kid progress through the material at their own pace, which might be 1-2 "grade levels" per year (especially if she keeps working through summer), or might not.

In FCPS, for most students, the Alg 1 HN in 7th path is high enough. If your student is "beyond school", you need to study at home, because school won't go anywhere close to what the mathy kids can do at home (and/or external private classes). If you get through geometry at home before the end of 7th, then summer geometry clears the credit requirement.

There are many students in FCPS who are doing boring review of math in school, while their real math education is at home. (At least 100 per grade)

Focus on her enjoyment. She’ll learn more out of that than acceleration. If she enjoys AMC8, give her some other middle school level math competitions (the problems often combine multiple math disciplines in one problem). It would be more fun if she had someone to take it with and compare solutions (a friend or even a parent). Is there a math club at her school? Sometimes, they participate in competitive events. If she is really into it, there are several paid math competition classes in the area that many kids enjoy.

As far as that AMC8 score, it is hard to extrapolate for a 4th grader, but 9/25 is not an exceptional score on its own, but still impressive for her age and lack of outside enrichment (that maps to ~12/25 after you add in guessing on the questions she didn’t answer). There are 4th graders that score 18+.

If you do end up deciding to accelerate in school, I would suggest Algebra1 in 6th —> Geometry in 7th is a better path than Alg in 7th —> summer geometry.

Had my 4th grader took the AMC 8 for fun at home. She was only able to answer 9/25, but got all correct. Unpreped. Have not accelerated her math learning outside school until this semester. Well, she is in AAP so learning 5th grade math now. Started Beast academy like 3 months ago. Just started level 5. So I think she did well and solid for what she has been taught. I know there are ton’s of kids that do way better in this test at this age. But maybe they had accelerated learning?

She is way faster doing math than her peers in AAP. Great accuracy, too. Often finished homework while others are still doing class work.

My question: she loves math and seems to be good at it. She is excited about competition. She begged me to give her the AMC 8 test. But I am also aware that she is not a math genius who would’ve already self taught algebra, geometry with whatever resources she could find online.

If you have a child like this, how do you support them in addition to supplement with Beastacedemy? Do you think it is a good idea to have her test out the SOL 6 and IOWA next year as a fifth grader? I believe if you do well in both exams and with CogAt >140 you could start algebra 1 in 6th grade? By observing the way she learns, figure things on her own, and how fast she could apply what she just learnt to something else, I think she might actually not do bad. Hey, by no means I wish her to accelerate so much, but I am curious to find out about her potential. I’m a little afraid that she is not challenged enough at school.

Thanks for any genuine advice. And please be nice.