Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love AoPS. Their books are great, but once you get to the intermediate level the pacing seems off. They could stand to spend more time on some concepts that they gloss over. Now maybe it's fine if your kid happens to be that statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week. I don't feel it's sufficient even for very bright students at a higher level.

"statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week." has always been the target audience, and the program is advertised as such. That said, the age level isn't the key thing, since there is no age gating on the content.

"Doing AIME" means learning intro Algebra, Geometry, Counting, and Number Theory, with a "math IQ" multiplier to be able to solve tricky/hard problems that rely on clever combinations and applications of these basic facts. This is "gifted/talented middle shooler" territory. An 8th grade "math head", who treats math seriously the way another kid treats soccer seriously, can qualify for AIME... or at least could have 10 years ago, when the ever rising difficulty level was substantially lower.

"Passing AIME" is very different matter.


How is the pacing off? You are allowed to progress at your own pace and spend more time practicing any topic.

How is it both insufficient for higher level and also not slow enough for low level?

What do you mean by "higher level"? Do you mean older students (like 16+ and learned calculus?), or higher ability students within a subject like Algebra and Geometry?

I mean exactly what I wrote. It's geared to those 13 year olds who will do well on AIME or students who want to study a math text for 6-8 hours per week. They rush through many fundamental concepts in the first 10 chapters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love AoPS. Their books are great, but once you get to the intermediate level the pacing seems off. They could stand to spend more time on some concepts that they gloss over. Now maybe it's fine if your kid happens to be that statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week. I don't feel it's sufficient even for very bright students at a higher level.

"statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week." has always been the target audience, and the program is advertised as such. That said, the age level isn't the key thing, since there is no age gating on the content.

"Doing AIME" means learning intro Algebra, Geometry, Counting, and Number Theory, with a "math IQ" multiplier to be able to solve tricky/hard problems that rely on clever combinations and applications of these basic facts. This is "gifted/talented middle shooler" territory. An 8th grade "math head", who treats math seriously the way another kid treats soccer seriously, can qualify for AIME... or at least could have 10 years ago, when the ever rising difficulty level was substantially lower.

"Passing AIME" is very different matter.


How is the pacing off? You are allowed to progress at your own pace and spend more time practicing any topic.

How is it both insufficient for higher level and also not slow enough for low level?

What do you mean by "higher level"? Do you mean older students (like 16+ and learned calculus?), or higher ability students within a subject like Algebra and Geometry?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love AoPS. Their books are great, but once you get to the intermediate level the pacing seems off. They could stand to spend more time on some concepts that they gloss over. Now maybe it's fine if your kid happens to be that statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week. I don't feel it's sufficient even for very bright students at a higher level.

"statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week." has always been the target audience, and the program is advertised as such. That said, the age level isn't the key thing, since there is no age gating on the content.

"Doing AIME" means learning intro Algebra, Geometry, Counting, and Number Theory, with a "math IQ" multiplier to be able to solve tricky/hard problems that rely on clever combinations and applications of these basic facts. This is "gifted/talented middle shooler" territory. An 8th grade "math head", who treats math seriously the way another kid treats soccer seriously, can qualify for AIME... or at least could have 10 years ago, when the ever rising difficulty level was substantially lower.

"Passing AIME" is very different matter.


How is the pacing off? You are allowed to progress at your own pace and spend more time practicing any topic.

How is it both insufficient for higher level and also not slow enough for low level?

What do you mean by "higher level"? Do you mean older students (like 16+ and learned calculus?), or higher ability students within a subject like Algebra and Geometry?

Anonymous wrote:I love AoPS. Their books are great, but once you get to the intermediate level the pacing seems off. They could stand to spend more time on some concepts that they gloss over. Now maybe it's fine if your kid happens to be that statistically rare kid that will do AIME at 13 or spends 6-8 hours a week reading math textbook each week. I don't feel it's sufficient even for very bright students at a higher level.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been doing AOPs books at home; intro to algebra, intro to number theory, intro to counting and probability, and intro to geometry.
In a few months, we will be done. (We are doing cover to cover, but skip some very difficult Qs).

DC is grade 6. I am wondering if the intermediate AOPS books may be too difficult for DC. Intermediate books are for high schoolers, right? Or, can you handle it if you finish the intro books?

Do you have any suggested book that can be in-between the intro and intermediate AOPs books. It may be good to do easier books for a while, but normal books like Scholastics seem too easy. Any suggestion?

"We are doing cover to cover, but skip some very difficult Qs" I think the values of those books are the difficult questions, those questions force the kid to think deep and struggle. If you skip some of them (not sure how many), I do not think you have really finished those books. We are doing those books at home as well and we do not skip any questions, it really takes time to finish one book. I let the kid to do all questions, and we do not give hints unless it is absolutely necessary.

Anonymous wrote:OP. This post is full of insightful comments!

I totally agree that if DC goes back to the past chapter/book, DC probably cannot answer immediately. . .
It's been literally years since we started the intro books.

"Do not skip any question" -- We are trying, but in our case, some challenge Qs (one or two per chapter) are impossible to solve even if we look at answers.

We will focus on reinforcing foundation/having fun with the next book, and then think about the next step. We still have 2+ years before finishing middle school, and studying ahead too much is unnecessary.

Anonymous wrote:We have been doing AOPs books at home; intro to algebra, intro to number theory, intro to counting and probability, and intro to geometry.
In a few months, we will be done. (We are doing cover to cover, but skip some very difficult Qs).

DC is grade 6. I am wondering if the intermediate AOPS books may be too difficult for DC. Intermediate books are for high schoolers, right? Or, can you handle it if you finish the intro books?

Do you have any suggested book that can be in-between the intro and intermediate AOPs books. It may be good to do easier books for a while, but normal books like Scholastics seem too easy. Any suggestion?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they really finish the books?

Is Alcumus all Blue on Hard level? Mathcounts Trainer a breeze, all 4 levels?

If so, your kid is ready to win USAMTS (at home Olympiad), get a high score on the AMC 10 in October, and qualify for USAJMO.

Anyway, if you want to move up the curriculum, obviously you can move on to the next book in the series, Intermediate Algebra.

I wouldn't describe it as any harder than Mathcounts trainer at the state level. Mostly just takes time and effort.