<p>How do you guys begin doing research for intel and such, I am a bit confused about the topic in general, can anyone explain please?</p>
<p>also for the AIME and AMC, do you guys prep for that or not? If so, how?</p>
<p>Haha, ok thanks, sorry for the broad questions but i just reviewed the MIT results threads and i got curious.</p>
<p>To be more specific, I do not have access to a university.</p>
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<p>-Start by acquiring some general knowledge in the field you want to research in (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Math, etc.)
-Find local universities near you that you will be able to travel to
-Find a research topic that interests you that a professor is currently working on at the university
-Read their abstracts and publications
-Send an email to them expressing your interest in working with them (Make sure you talk about the publications you have read, what interested you and why it interested you)
-If it is not possible for the professor to work with you, send a thank you letter, and keep trying! (My first time, I had to send out 4 before I even got a reply…but, after I had an year of research experience, I didn’t have to wait more than 1-2 hours to get a reply from the professor. lesson learned: use your credentials to your advantage)
-Start working with the professor and make sure you get involved in the research
-After an year or so (or how ever long your project takes), tell him/her about the Intel STS and Siemens competitions
-Start on that process early as you will need a lot of time!
-Start writing a research paper a couple of months in advance (you’ll need this time to write! writing a scientific research paper is quite difficult the first time you do it and it takes time to get acquainted to the write way of writing)
-Submit your project to Siemens or Intel STS, and continue to work with your professor…don’t make it look like you just wanted to do research with them so you could submit to a competition
-Get involved in more than 1 research project! (I’m currently involved in 3 at the same time. It’s very busy but very rewarding at the same time)</p>
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<p>I used Art of Problem Solving Books Volumes 1 + 2. If you master the material in both of those books, you should be able to easily qualify for AIME and possibly USAJMO/USAMO. </p>
<p>Hope this helped. Good luck!</p>
<p>Science buddies website has some good stuff in it.
[Science</a> Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools](<a href=“http://www.sciencebuddies.org/]Science”>http://www.sciencebuddies.org/)</p>
<p>thanks a bunch</p>
<p>I would recommend you actually conduct your own research. What do you expect to gain from writing a report about a professor’s research, as WongTongTong has suggested? Are you really going to lie in your report and say that it’s your research and the professor was just your mentor?</p>
<p>^ well of course not, but how else would you suggest i begin?</p>
<p>I always thought that like the 1st year is grunt work at the labs getting to use some equipment and learning a lot. 2nd year or something i might be able to further assist in some actual research, and then if he publishes it, I get my name on it with like 100 other people or something if i make a contribution. And then i might begin my own research for a year and try to publish that.</p>
<p>@nateheeter
WongTongTong was suggesting emailing a professor and basically asking for a project to do</p>
<p>Not either stealing the prof’s work (which would never happen because the prof needs papers to make tenure) or making a summarized version of a prof.'s research is not suitable for STS or Intel.</p>
<p>As regards to the timeline, it depends on how much you know, how much you can learn, how much unfinished work the prof has available, how much freedom he/she is willing to give to a high school student etc. Try looking for a professor who wants to give you your own project instead of being a grunt for a grad student. Harder to find but more exciting.</p>
<p>I think i need to begin as grunt because im still a sophomore(suspecting you thought i was a junior) or is that incorrect?</p>
<p>I was a Siemens Competition Regional Finalist in 2008 and a Semi-Finalist in 2009. My team did not do any work under any professors. We completed most of our research in a basement. Our mentor was a grad student whom we communicated with by telephone. You don’t need to mooch off a professor. The judges absolutely grill you in the question and answer session, so it needs to be your work and you need to understand it. My team’s project was an original idea to significantly improve the effectiveness of electrostatic solar sails. We came up with the idea ourselves, designed our own means of testing it, and didn’t rely on the work of others. I know for a fact that some in the competition basically interned at a lab and passed off their supervisor as a “mentor,” but most who reached that stage worked mostly independently.</p>
<p>Some work obviously has to take place in somebody else’s lab. Originality and independent intellectual contribution to the direction of research is valued, but this can be communicated by the recs by your mentor. Also, it’s not all-or-nothing. You’re not expected to be able to produce unique and creative ideas in a lab in the short time you have in the last years of high school. Some people can, and that is a plus. Hopefully, you can get an understanding of the game of research, learn the techniques, and begin to be able to anticipate the next step without needing someone to tell you to do it.</p>
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<p>Precisely.</p>
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<p>No- I do not advise it. As I have previously stated, READ the professor’s publications and abstracts, and start reading advanced books on the topic. Make sure you know what you are doing and why you are doing it. ONLY ask the professor once you have found something you liked. Please do not embarrass yourself by emailing “Dear Dr., Give me a project. Thanks, Student.” However, if you do want it, I can send you one of the letters I sent to a professor. </p>
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<p>I’ve never seen research done completely out of the lab qualify out of the regional section. I would advise working under a professor, at least at first.</p>
<p>Here’s what you should do (this is at least what my group did):
<p>2) After you get a mentor, you should be doing your OWN research work. Your mentor is supposed to let you use his/her lab and resources, and is supposed to teach you the basics of what your project is about. He/she is also responsible in teaching you how to use laboratory materials You, however, do the research by reading journal articles/references, and actually conduct an experiment. </p>
<p>Of course this is much easier said then done, which is why it usually takes months to finish. You should be communicating with your mentor and other students (usually grad students) who use the lab, in order to learn as much as you can. You should be writing parts of a coherent paper, and having your mentor read it to perfect it. Eventually, you submit it to a competition like Siemens, Intel or ISEF (regional competition first btw), or can even publish your project if its good enough. </p>
<p>Credential: Siemens Semifinalist 2010</p>
<p>You don’t need to enter any competitions to get into MIT, just like me. I had entered ZERO competitions and had nearly zero awards to put on my application yet I was still accepted early action.</p>
<p>All I did was to do work with a professor over the summer and contribute to his research poster in any way I can, as well continuing to demonstrate my interests and passions in more research I later did during school year in a different lab. Not really a publication but my name was on the research poster as an acknowledgement of my contribution. I also had a letter of recommendation from him for MIT as well.</p>
<p>Oh also, try to be on a very good rapport with some teachers AND guidance counselors so they can write you a stellar letter of recommendation. My high school AP Calc teacher said something along the line of me being the most driven, unique, more risk-taking than an average HS student, etc student she ever had in the letter of rec for MIT (yes, she let me read it). Same goes for my guidance counselor and English teacher. You could be smart and all, but make an effort to let the teacher know you as a person besides “that girl who just got the best grade in class”. I wasn’t the girl who got <em>best</em> grade in class or with high rank, though of course, I did get good grades. I always made sure to get to know the teachers as people and build my relationship with them, while as well demonstrating my interest in the subjects. xD (Come on, who doesn’t like calculus?!)</p>
<p>there are also alot of summer research camps out there, like RSI and HSHSP</p>
<p>Math competitions are necessary if you didn’t do much research, and particularly if you want to become a math major (you don’t officially declare any major) however you will want to brand yourself as an enthusiast of a certain branch. </p>
<p>Making AIME alone is really good, only 5% of AMC testers make it that far, so any amc 10 score of 117+ or AMC 12 ~95 will get you advanced to next level. </p>
<p>To study for these tests, do what WongtongTong and I have done, use the de facto math site for this, [Art</a> of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/]Art”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/)</p>
<p>WildcharterImage’s experience (for reasons also not mentioned in her post) is atypical, so I wouldn’t exactly dump competitions. </p>
<p>As for summer programs, 
check out the summer program threads, they will help you if you can explain why you wanted and did those programs,</p>