Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They've also done a lot of work digitizing the test itself, near-instant scoring, and randomizing question orders.

About that...

DC reported the same when they got stuck on problem 3 - did they actually announce that? Doing it behind people's back seems stupid and unfair.

The boards I have read and the kids I have talked to were all aware that things were randomized. Kids could skip questions and return to them. One technique that is reinforced in my kids math competition program is to skip the problems you are struggling with and return to them when you have answered all the ones that you are comfortable with.

The kids I've talked to personally all were surprised.

There's a traditional way to approach the AMC contests, which, for instance, gives rise to the course title: Final Fives. For them to just throw this out the window without prior announcement and disclosure is stupid.

It this a test about taking a test or math skills?

Both but all tests are about both. You need strong math skills to do well on the AMCs but you also need to understand competition math, which is different in its approach then a regular math test. There are ways to approach the questions that are helpful to know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They've also done a lot of work digitizing the test itself, near-instant scoring, and randomizing question orders.

About that...

DC reported the same when they got stuck on problem 3 - did they actually announce that? Doing it behind people's back seems stupid and unfair.

The boards I have read and the kids I have talked to were all aware that things were randomized. Kids could skip questions and return to them. One technique that is reinforced in my kids math competition program is to skip the problems you are struggling with and return to them when you have answered all the ones that you are comfortable with.

The kids I've talked to personally all were surprised.

There's a traditional way to approach the AMC contests, which, for instance, gives rise to the course title: Final Fives. For them to just throw this out the window without prior announcement and disclosure is stupid.

It this a test about taking a test or math skills?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It takes a great parent or coach to recognize not just current performance, but the potential for even greater achievements. That’s how excellence is nurtured—through a bit of encouragement to push beyond the comfort zone.

Thanks! Will continue to do that.

The results are out. She did worse than my estimation. But I’m glad that she texted me “I did really bad in the test”. Well, that rarely happens so the awareness and willingness to communicate made me happy. I’ll ask her to spend more time to prepare for the next year. My goal is for her to see hard work pays off and of course to lay a better math foundation. If she does not make it to honor in 8th grade, we will not try amc10 if she agrees. And I’m ok with it. At least she tried. A journey for me to learn about her potential.

If there is spoemthing else she'd rather be doing, why not spend the time and energy pushing her for rexcellence in something she actually cares about? "Pushing" becomes supporting her in that case. These silly tests are meaningless.

The above post is spot on. DS loves his math competition class because he is talking math with other kids who are good at math and seem to enjoy math. Same for Mathcounts, he enjoys the club because there is a social element to the activity that is important to him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It takes a great parent or coach to recognize not just current performance, but the potential for even greater achievements. That’s how excellence is nurtured—through a bit of encouragement to push beyond the comfort zone.

Thanks! Will continue to do that.

The results are out. She did worse than my estimation. But I’m glad that she texted me “I did really bad in the test”. Well, that rarely happens so the awareness and willingness to communicate made me happy. I’ll ask her to spend more time to prepare for the next year. My goal is for her to see hard work pays off and of course to lay a better math foundation. If she does not make it to honor in 8th grade, we will not try amc10 if she agrees. And I’m ok with it. At least she tried. A journey for me to learn about her potential.

I don't know why, but the way you worded the above makes me sad. I get that parents want to help their children improve but it doesn't sound motivating at all. I don't think that would do anything for me as a kid, if my parent asks me to prepare more. It would probably make me more anxious because I will feel that I am disappointing them more if I don't prepare like I was asked.

To me it sounds like she is not that excited about it because she is preparing by herself. It would be much better if she found one or two like minded peers/friends to work together with. You mentioned she is surrounded by lots of smart kids at school; if she had a small group I bet she would enjoy learning difficult things a lot more because it's less of a lonely experience when doing it with someone else. Does she know anyone else who is into Aops/math contests outside of school? If she could find even one other person, especially any of her friends, it would make it that much more enjoyable. Many kids do love learning and have the capacity to really excel, but it's just difficult for them to spend hours alone, on top of their normal schoolwork. But together with some friends could make it a very different experience and all of a sudden it is possible she could be just as motivated as she is with A's at school. I'd guess she is motivated to get A's because she is competing with her peers and wants to stand out, not necessarily because she loves all her subjects in school.

Over the years I've observed how many smart kids work and many of the highly motivated ones always had some sort of social environment that supported what they were doing, whether it was some formal team, or just friends at the same school who they were also competing or collaborating with for fun. It's just much easier and more fun to do this type of thing with others. Many kids at TJ love it not because they are given hours of work, much more than at a base school, that is by far the worst part for them. They love it because it is very easy to find like minded peers to work together with on a passion or hobby that they share an interest with. They are never alone. This is just an example, but it is very important to have that social support.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I would guess that many of the students who apply out of Cooper, Longfellow, and Carson will have taken the AMC 8 and a decent number of those will have achieved Honors or Distinguished Honors. I could be wrong but I am not sure it would stand out that much simply because I would expect that the kid interested in TJ should score high on these tests. DS earned HR as a 6th grader and DHR as a 7th grader. Most of the kids he knows in Mathcounts have similar scores.

It is impressive because it is a small percentage of the kids who take the test but it is also expected that the kids who apply to a school like TJ would be kids who score high on these type of tests. It is kind of like expecting kids who apply to MIT to be kids who score high on the AMC 12 and AIME, and most likely make the USAMO.

Sorry for digging up last year’s post. Just curious if the above claim is accurate? I thought TJ focuses on both science and technology, not just math? So it is not a place for someone with a passion in science, and capability to have all As in middle school math and science, but does not adore and prepare for math competition like AMC 8/10/AIME? Can someone tell me that it’s not true, and such kid can be successful at TJ?

There is no way to know it is accurate. As the parent of a kid at Carson who is applying to TJ, many of the kids he is in math with took the AMC 8. It is a proxy measure for interest in math outside of the school environment and can point to kids who are interested in more creative uses of math then a kid who is doing well in just the math class.