Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm making my point poorly. For math contests, TJ is only going to care about standouts. These would be the kids who are likely to be strong members of TJ's math team and in the top 10 or so in their grade at TJ. These are the kids who are making it to Mathcounts nationals or qualifying for AIME in middle school. TJ is not going to care about elementary school math contests or mediocre results in middle school ones.

If a kid from Longfellow middle school places 10th at Mathcounts chapters, TJ will not likely be interested in that kid. It's an okay result, but most likely achieved by a kid who has been preparing for many years. Perhaps if a kid from Sandburg or Glasgow scored in the top 10, TJ would care, as those kids are unlikely to be the products of extreme prep.

The whole context, though, is that a PP argued that it's unfair for TJ admissions that some kids are getting CML while others aren't. CML is a lesser contest and will not make a difference in the kids' problem solving ability or their ability to access TJ. It's just not an important or good enough test.

Making it to AIME, USAJMO, or MathCounts nationals will not help get into TJ, as they don't look at these items.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Tiger Moms are roaring EARLY. 2nd grade? What a joke.

Anonymous wrote:If you want a contest with minimal cheating, try mathleague.org. They run online contests every month.

Anonymous wrote: Almost every middle school has a math counts team, and they will try to recruit kids in 7th grade Algebra/8th grade geometry for their teams, so the kids would know about the opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm making my point poorly. For math contests, TJ is only going to care about standouts. These would be the kids who are likely to be strong members of TJ's math team and in the top 10 or so in their grade at TJ. These are the kids who are making it to Mathcounts nationals or qualifying for AIME in middle school. TJ is not going to care about elementary school math contests or mediocre results in middle school ones.

If a kid from Longfellow middle school places 10th at Mathcounts chapters, TJ will not likely be interested in that kid. It's an okay result, but most likely achieved by a kid who has been preparing for many years. Perhaps if a kid from Sandburg or Glasgow scored in the top 10, TJ would care, as those kids are unlikely to be the products of extreme prep.

The whole context, though, is that a PP argued that it's unfair for TJ admissions that some kids are getting CML while others aren't. CML is a lesser contest and will not make a difference in the kids' problem solving ability or their ability to access TJ. It's just not an important or good enough test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I'm not the one signing up my kid for CML! The school is doing it--we are at Haycock Elementary. And, this is the first time I've seen this also, so that's why I'm asking. My other child is in 6th grade and they have math competition (via a team) but the 6th grader didn't have CML in 2nd grade. I'm trying to understand if it's a FCPS thing that got instituted this year or something across the county, but it sounds like that is not the case. But every 2nd grader at Haycock is taking the CML this year and I'm starting to wonder why.

Haycock has given CML's for awhile to 2nd grade and above. My recollection is that these CML's usually are done later in the school year, but the school may be starting early this year for the full-time AAP assessment. Frankly, I never paid attention to them for my two kids. But, what I learned recently is that parents actually do prepare their kids for CMLs and similar math problems because they go into GBRS assessment and also can be a good work sample for the school to submit. Given that GBRS will be even more important this year, I think that (1) Haycock and similar schools will give them out earlier in the year to students to help with the school's GBRS assessment and (2) parents who are in-the-know will be making sure (or already have) that their kids will be ready.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or online is always an option? Our kids do better with online curriculum in addition to their daily school schedule. We’ve also enrolled them in Beestar’s National Math Competition for the States. Works well for us!

mathleague.org runs online contests every month for 3rd-6th grade. 2nd graders can participate as 3rd graders if they wish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there other FCPS elementary schools participating in the Continental Math League competition? All of a sudden, our school is participating for 2nd grade. I’m wondering why. My older kids didn’t have this.

Yes, my 2nd grader has done 2 so far. It’s just a worksheet that they spend 30 min on in class. The kids know the problems are way above skill level. This is not a big deal

Anonymous wrote:Are there other FCPS elementary schools participating in the Continental Math League competition? All of a sudden, our school is participating for 2nd grade. I’m wondering why. My older kids didn’t have this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, lots of envious people on this thread... It's not early to do travel soccer or other sports, why then do so many whine about doing outside math?

Ha! Wrong. It is ALSO too early to do travel sports.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, lots of envious people on this thread... It's not early to do travel soccer or other sports, why then do so many whine about doing outside math?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A huge part of the point of all of this nonsense is for relatively workaday kids to leapfrog the bright underprivileged kids.

Translation: A huge part of the point of this is for hardworking kids to leapfrog the bright, white, UMC kids who aren't putting in any extra work on academics.

Really, you're speaking like it's a bad thing for kids to work hard and then perform better than the kids who are naturally brighter but didn't work as hard. How dare those kids work hard and perform better than they ought to perform based on inherent ability!

Anonymous wrote:Why cannot you guys understand that it is ok to practice in sports and entertainment but not ok in academics?