Math competition

fabulousgrizzly

Hi All. I have been entered for intermediate math challenge from my school. It will run from 1 - 4 February. Please can someone give me tips on how should I start preparing? How should I face and approach the most difficult questions? Please. Thank you for your generous support. May you get the karma for helping me.

energizedpanda

@fabulousgrizzly Please define "intermediate math challenge" more precisely. What grade are you? That way I can understand your level better and (maybe) help you with some things. Here are some general things to consider, no matter what level you are:

To prepare, see if you can scoop up previous competition problems. Try to do these and TIME YOURSELF. also don't overwork yourself either.
If you have an extremely tedious problem in your hands, skip it first(if all of the problems are worth the same amount of points.)
don't stress!!

fabulousgrizzly

@energizedpanda Thank you for your reply. I am in 10th grade

energizedpanda

@fabulousgrizzly then I'm assuming you're either doing Algebra II or Precalculus. I am not so familiar with curriculum because I'm currently in middle school, but here are some resources that I think that may help:

If you're in algebra 2, review inequalities, like AM-GM and such. Also do a lot of stuff with functions.

If you're in precalc, review trig identities. Euler's formula(e^pitheta = cos theta + i sin theta) may be very useful. Review functions + imaginary numbers + polar form too.

If you want a free review resource, check out khan academy.

mathnerd_101

Oh oops my school does precalc in 8th so can't really relate. I'll assume you're talking about the AMC10/12. Here are a couple of tips from Hurdler:
In general, there are 3 things to work on

learn new math
improve speed accuracy of things you can do
extend the range of problems you can do.

At this point it may be good to focus mostly on #2, #3. For some of you, you should just mainly focus on #2, #3 at this point, to consolidate what you can do with the math you already have "learned".

energizedpanda

@mathnerd_101 your school must be very high-quality! we do Pre-algebra in 7th grade. And Precalculus/Algebra II in 10th grade.