<p>What books are helpful? I'm thinking of going over some this summer while on vacation.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Art of Problem Solving, Volume 2 (and perhaps 1) are hands down the best math competition prep books, from AMC level to easy Olympiad level. (Am I right? I think a lot of people here would agree).</p>
<p>You can buy them off artofproblemsolving.com</p>
<p>Also do old tests.</p>
<p>If I’m doing prep for AMC12 would you suggest #1 or #2?</p>
<p>Also, sort of confused… if I get it direct from the website (new), it’s like 40 dollars for text + solutions for 1 volume, but if I get it from Amazon marketplace (used) it’s like 100 for 1 volume also. I’d expect it to be cheaper if I get it direct… what’s the catch?</p>
<p>I would get volume 2 for AMC12. Volume 1 would be useful if you don’t have a good foundation in the basics.</p>
<p>Edit: Idk, you can’t really get AoPS books other than from their site. The amazon prices don’t make much sense.</p>
<p>the level of problems in volume 2 goes up to hard amc/easy-medium aime level. What are you scoring right now? I would say use vol. 2 and amc 12 problems on the aops website. The most important part of the aops books is the problems; they are very well chosen and are the only way you can learn from the books.</p>
<p>my amc 12 score as a sophomore was something ridiculously embarrassing like 80, but granted, i took it cold and was operating on 5 hours of sleep</p>
<p>Yeah- I would go through AOPS 2 very slowly, doing every single problem, and every single example. If you can’t solve a problem in about half an hour, study the solution. This is when the learning comes: make sure you know the solution extremely well, and most importantly how you could have thought that up. Also, try solving some AMC 12 problems on the aops website. I’m pretty sure they have almost all of them.</p>