New mods?
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@victorioussheep I'm a sophomore in high school!
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@audrey Oh...wow...
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@audrey Also, what kind of math competition have you been involved in? Which is one is your favorite? and which one is the overall hardest contest you have ever encountered in your math journey?
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@victorioussheep warning: this will probably be a long post haha
The first math competitions I participated in were small ones through my local math circle (they had a few different annual ones).
My favorite math contest so far is probably MATHCOUNTS (a middle school contest), just because in my opinion it was the most fun
essentially you can advance through contests at the school level, then chapter, then state, and then if you make nationals, you get to go to either Florida or Washington D.C. to compete. So I definitely recommend that you participate if you live in the US!I've also participated in the AMC8 (for middle schoolers) and AMC 10/12 (for high schoolers). The second one is kind of the "main" high school competition; if you do well, then you get invited to a series of progressively harder tests (AIME, then USAMO, etc.) to choose the USA's IMO team of the top 4 (which Prof. Loh coaches lol). Those tests (particularly AIME) are definitely the hardest contest I've taken
(they're fun though!)And then some other more minor contests I've participated in are ARML, Purple Comet, and BMT.
I'm probably forgetting a few contest lol, but let me know if you have questions about any of them!
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WOW, you have had lots of experience with all sorts of contests and you must have competed in all the possible math competitions in the world! Personally, I am never a big fan of math and I don't even know any math competition until last year(I came to the USA 3 years ago and I need to work on my English language first
)Now, I think now it might be a too late for me to compete in any of the middle school contest, and I kind of regret it whenever I think of the past when my mom wants me to learn something but I just don't want to because I am not interested in it. Do you think I should still try out math competitions even I have a late start and I don't have the math talent?Oh also, could you give me some suggestions on what sort of contests is better for a person who has never try out the competition before?
P.S. Sorry I know I have asked you a lot of questions!
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I think Mathcounts is a good first time competition because it's a bunch of easy questions under a tight time limit. I started with Math Kangaroo which has more puzzle-like questions than AMC and a lot more time. AMC competitions are more popular. Also, I'm doing Purple Comet soon, which is a team competition with 20 problems and an hour.
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@victorioussheep Haha unfortunately not
there are way more math competitions that are all slightly different regarding aim/audience/focus, etc. (so I think I haven't really done that many!)For your first question, I definitely don't think it's too late! Depending on your grade level, you might still be able to participate in middle school contests, and there's plenty of time to prepare for the high school ones. It sounds like you aren't completely sure whether you're interested in math/math competitions yet (but correct me if I'm wrong). If so, I'd still suggest giving it a try--it can't hurt, and you might be surprised to find that you enjoy it more than you thought you would at first
(for me personally, I started doing math more for my parents, but eventually came to enjoy the math for math itself + its beauty)And definitely don't let the talent thing, or belief that you aren't particularly gifted when it comes to math, deter you-- having a "natural" talent for math might make a difference initially, but eventually (or at least through my observation lol) it just becomes a matter of who puts in the time and effort.
As for contests, if you're in middle school still, then I would recommend the more middle school-oriented contests (as @divinedolphin suggests, MATHCOUNTS, Math Kangaroo, etc.), because they're usually designed to be less intimidating or advanced. I actually am not really familiar with other contests besides the few I've taken, so maybe one of the mods might be more qualified to answer your question... sorry! (I think the Daily Challenge newsletter also has resources under "Middle School Competitions" and "High School Competitions")
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Again, thank you for your suggestions! Unfortunately, I will be a 9th grader this year...so I might need to start preparing for some high school contests!
Yes, I don't think I find the true beauty of math yet, probably because I view mathematics as a must-take course, and it is a way to please my parent if I do well on the exam. However, after doing the daily challenges and seeing how Professor Po-Shen-Loh has solved all of the questions in a unique way, I started to change my mindset and now I have the desire to dig deeper in a question rather than being forced to do something!
Thank you again for your reply!
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Me a primary school student in Australia: confused screaming
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About math competitions for people just starting out, here are some off the top of my head... a lot of the middle school ones are actually organized by highschoolers, and a lot of the high school ones are organized by college students, hence their names. XD
Middle School contests:
Mathcounts (organized with school)
AMC 8 (organized with school)
EMCC = Exeter math club competition
LMT = Lexington math tournament
BMMT = Berkeley mini math tournament
MBMT = Montgomery Blair math tournamentHigh School contests:
AMC 10 & 12 (organized with school)
PUMAC = Princeton math competition
CMIMC = Carnegie Mellon math competition
HMMT = Harvard MIT math competition
BMT = Berkeley math competition
NIMO (this one is always online)If you subscribed to the Daily Challenge newsletter, you'll get notifications about all sorts of upcoming math contests.
Most importantly, it's never too late to start. Don't worry too much about your scores, as they are just numbers. So just enjoy the problems and have a good time! IRL competitions are much more fun because you can meet people too lol. But since everything is online this year, you actually have the ability to "attend" math competitions that otherwise would be across the country! So that's cool.
