<p>do the books on the artofproblemsovling.com website help to prepare you for the amc well? Has anyone used these books in the past?</p>
<p>My friend used them and said they suck. lol
But then again he's good at math.</p>
<p>He said it reviews basic stuff that people should already know and the only plus is that it gives practice problems from each kind of competition, which you can probably find online anyways.</p>
<p>i'm not good at problem solving and i think it sucks too. </p>
<p>It's too geeky for me anyways. with way they attempt to teach problem solving, you really have to be geeky (reading bunch of text on just problem solving). I suggest getting sample CML's with answers. At least that's mildly interesting.</p>
<p>I sponsor a math team, and recommend the aops books to all the kids. The strongest kids (usamo qualifiers) have systematically gone through the entire books. Some of the kids have them and just couldn't get rolling on them. They are not at all like a traditional math textbook, which I think is off-putting to some people. </p>
<p>Michael_Pham is correct that the problems are available elsewhere. But it's very convenient to have them all together in one place arranged by topic, and with coherent solutions. And if you look at it in terms of how many problems you get per dollar, they are much more economical than the books of old contests you can buy.</p>
<p>Volume 1 covers stuff needed for AMC 10/12 (I also had kids use it to prepare for Mathcounts Nationals). Vol 2 covers AIME and Mandelbrot type problems, and starts to segue you into USAMO type problems. I would probably recommend starting with vol. 1 even if you think you're a bit beyond that. You should be able to work through it quickly if that's the case, and doing so will ensure that there aren't any common tricks that you have missed, and help with speed.</p>
<p>anyone want to buy brand new copies of art of problem solving vol. 1 and 2 with solution at prices under the regular price?
i bought them at $68 but never opened them... too lazy to study
email me at <a href="mailto:erichuang955043@hotmail.com">erichuang955043@hotmail.com</a></p>
<p>At least two of the International Mathematical Olympiad team members from the United States mentioned in the book Count Down by Steve Olson used earlier editions of the AoPS books when they were middle-school age. I certainly think that the books are worth the time to work through the problems, and that they are beneficial for math competitions.</p>