<p>i need help and advice ..
background:my son loves mathcounts and is in the 6th grade. at the beginning of the year he squeaked on the team but practiced very hard and really moved up the ranks. surpassing some 7th graders</p>
<p>2 twin 7th grade boys have made amazing improvements! i am very impressed. they have shot up from squeaking on the team to being #1 and #2 which is great for them</p>
<p>they all work an hour before school, 3 hours after school and 3 hours on saturday with the math coach. they all do 40 questions/day (warmups and workout questions from previous year tests)</p>
<p>Question..what are these kids doing at home or how are their parents helping them study to progress so well..? the parents/kids aren't telling and my son really wants to know how to progress particularly in the team round..</p>
<p>any help/suggestions would be most appreciated!</p>
<p>Go to the Art</a> of Problem Solving site. Get the AOPS books recommended for middle school students. Have your son sign up on the site and start grinding through the Mathcounts forum threads.</p>
<p>Another suggestion - see if there are any math circles in your area.
Math circle does not prep you for any specific competition but kids get the exposure to a more discrete part of mathematics, not being taught at school.</p>
<p>I am sure you have already explored AoPS site by now. Did you notice For the Win???</p>
<p>In some states MathCounts is intensely competitive, in others not so. But those that get to the finals at nationals seem to be a little robotic. If you do not know what I mean, watch the finals from last year. It is available at the MathCounts website.</p>
<p>Nice chance to earn college scholarship money early! There is much available to the MathCounts winners.</p>
<p>At the state level and mentioned in the linked article about Bob Fisher:
[quote]
Scholarship Recipients:
* $10,000 annual Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Scholarships: Richard Ni, Sycamore School (top individual male); Alison Gayer, Heritage Christian School (top individual female)
* Full tuition and fee scholarships to Purdue University for the top 10 individual scorers.
<p>Reaching MC nationals is one the few middle school achievements worth mentioning on a college application. MC nationals alums are well represented in the AMC, AIME and USAMO rolls.</p>
<p>In addition to AoPS which many have mentioned, find out if your school hosts the AMC8. If not, check their site MAA</a> American Mathematics Competitions - AMC to see if a local institution (usually a college) sponsors it. Look up the questions in the AMC8 and perhaps even the 10 and 12 if your son is advanced. They sell a CD for a nominal charge with previous years' questions that you can use.</p>
<p>My S was heavily into math competitions and we would look up sites like: Regional</a> Math Competitions which lists many that we could attend. While most don't have the "on-stage" aspect of mathcounts, he did find them all very rewarding. Many of the sites publish previous years' questions so that you can see if they're at an appropriate level.</p>
<p>The ARML team contest is geared towards older kids, and in HS my S had a very fulfilling practice session season that lasted us several months when he was part of the Lehigh team.</p>
<p>PS - If you live anywhere near Pittsburgh, when your son gets into calculus, you must enter the U-Pitt high school integration bee which is in this format.</p>
<p>Besides For The Win at ArtofProblemSolving.com, there’s Alcumus (also at ArtofProblemSolving.com), which is an online problem system. You pick which areas you want problems from and it’ll feed you problems and let you earn badges as you solve them. There are associated videos over some topics, too.</p>