<p>Does anyone have ideas to motivate high school sophomore to excel in math contests?</p>
<p>I have tried to tell him that the contests will improve SAT and ACT scores or maybe lead to scholarships. I know I am also fighting the "It's not cool to be smart" factor. Some of the contests are individual and some are eight person teams. There has been some turnover in coaching and it is sometimes hard to get enough bodies to fill the seats.</p>
<p>Another winning school in our area has a team that comes in matching t-shirts and sunglasses. Our team thinks this is stupid but also is jealous of their results.</p>
<p>I think this is a little like atheletics. Some of the motivation comes from within the athelete and some from the coach. By the way, why do most of the parents skip the math awards but come to the basketball game?</p>
<p>And let's just say we are the left-of-center types who still hear the ringing of the '70s in our ears - Follow Your Bliss and all that. Let's just say we want the motivation to emerge organically? Then how do you deal with it? In our case, it's how do we get our cooler-than-cool S with the soul of a nerd to even sign up for a math contest, or a Latin contest, or whatever.</p>
<p>We have the same problem at our school. One kid dropped out on the morning of a big competition. The team only learned when they were already in the car and someone called the kid.
I don't see any point in bribing a kid or trying to motivate him by promising better results on SATs or ACT. I'm not even sure that math competitions are necessary to excel on standardized tests.<br>
Your kid might want to join a team that is not school-based. The team might get together to do math for the fun of it (there are some cool recreational math problems that are easily available through the internet). Or your kid could do these math problems on his own, at home.</p>
<p>Out of the mouths of babes. Now I just have to get my S to say more than Uhuh and Uhunh and Sure and No;)</p>
<p>In fact, he's reasonably communicative if you get him in the right situation, i.e. locked in with a seatbelt. Thank you for the suggestion. Returning this thread to its rightful owner.</p>
<p>alumother:
If your S were to meet my S#1, he'd learn to say more than Uhuh and Uhunh. He'd say:
"I'll think about it." (My S is a college graduate, after all). The results, however, would be the same. :)</p>
<p>Does anyone else agree with Schwaby? I have never paid monetary rewards for good grades? Thanks for the posts! I just wish it was as cool to be smart as it is to be an athlete.</p>
<p>No cash. My son is motivated to keep his grades up but too shy to do well in competition. Could that be your son's problem? All I would do is talk to him, tell him how important it is and why, and (this works for my kid) tell him that I am proud of him and know he'll do his best. Then drop it as best you can so he doesn't get resentful. Leave it on a positive note.</p>
<p>cash might help, but not by offering it to your son. Talk to both your son and to the team sponsor and see if there's anything you can do with your money and/or time to strengthen the team. Maybe pay for pizza at the meetings. Or pay for a college student who has contest experience to come work with the team. Or pay for some sort of prizes for the kids who do well. Or pay for matching t-shirts.</p>
<p>If your son is simply not all that interested in math competitions, you may simply have to back off. Lots of very smart kids who could do well at various types of academic competitions simply do not like the competitive/team aspect of it for one reason or another (not cool, teammates are dorks, too stressful, prefer a different aspect of the subject, meets are too early in the am).</p>
If your son is simply not all that interested in math competitions, you may simply have to back off. Lots of very smart kids who could do well at various types of academic competitions simply do not like the competitive/team aspect of it for one reason or another.
<p>Does your son not want to do the contests? Does he want to enter the contest, but peer pressure that is keeping him from doing them? Or does he kind of, sort of want to do them, but not put in any effort? </p>
<p>If the first, let him find activities that he enjoys. Students can be good at math, but not enjoy doing contests. If he doesn't enjoy the contests, he won't do well, anyway.</p>
<p>If the second, he may want to try USAMTS, which he can do at home without peer involvement. If USAMTS interests him, he may join other contests.</p>
<p>If the third, perhaps you could set aside one evening a week to have a mini-math competition with him at home. If he becomes more interested, he'll work harder. If he doesn't, you can assume he would prefer to do something other than math contests.</p>
<p>BTW, I don't think that doing math contests will have a significant impact on SAT/ACT scores. For SATs/ACTs, a student needs to understand <em>basic</em> math (the math is not difficult) and to read with understanding. Half of SAT math is reading. For SATs, a student has to ask, "What is the question asking?" Often, all a question is asking is if the student knows the square of a negative is positive, that the angles in a triangle add to 180, or something equally fundamental. Math contest problems, on the other hand, require much more mathematical thinking. In math contests a student has to ask, "How can I find an elegant approach to solve this problem?" (Brute force won't get students very far.)</p>
<p>No cash or other rewards here, either, though we do go out and celebrate achievements. But we do not make a big deal of grades, either. We've found that our S is willing to aim higher if he does not have to worry about getting top grades (conversely, there are plenty of kids who focus on getting high grades and take easy classes, or kids who take APs for the sake of have the benefit of weighted grades). </p>
<p>Like most high schools, ours also emphasizes athletics. But there are enough high achieving kids to fill a variety of academic teams (though not the math team) and to provide support for one another. My S is not the competitive type. But he hates to let his teams down; that's what motivates him to show up week in week out and try to do well on competitions. Yet, if the team or he himself does not do as well as he would like, he just moves on.</p>
<p>in terms of standardized test, Mathcounts is helpful (a middle school contest). The problems are very similar to SAT math problems. But the high school contests are way beyond what is required or useful for SAT, ACT, etc. They are helpful and useful for general mathematical thinking and problem solving in more advanced classes.</p>
<p>Instead of trying to motivate your child for an EC that the child isn't that interested in, steer the child toward an EC that they probably would enjoy, and give the child the opportunities to pursue that EC in depth.</p>
<p>I keep seeing parents forcing kids to do things like math contests when the kids would prefer to do things like art or other activities. The best way for students to get into college is to keep their grades up while pursuing in depth activities that they genuinely enjoy. Then, when it is time for college, they need to look for colleges and scholarship contests that match their interests.</p>
<p>If your son happens to be Asian or a white male, doing well on math contests is not going to make him stand out unless he's doing it at an exceptional level -- nationally (which means doing more than winning some national categories in a math club). If he's Asian, he'd probably stand out more in the application pool by excelling on a football or hockey team while keeping his grades up or by winning a national art contest.</p>
<p>A white male would probably stand out by pursuing art, humanities, or some subject that's females, not males tend to be attracted to.</p>
<p>The science and math ECs are overflowing with stelllar Asian and white males. Asian girls still get a boost because women are relatively rare in those fields, but that's not the case for the guys.</p>
<p>I assume this still exists, but I may be out of date..</p>
<p>Ever hear of the USAMTS? Stands for USA Math Talent Search. It's a different kind of contest. Too late for this year, but it usually starts in August. You can get the questions on-line or by mail. (So you don't have to lose your "cool" image, 'cause nobody needs to know unless you do so well that you get your name published in the next report.) You get a certain amount of time to do a set of problems. It used to be about three weeks or a month. So, the emphasis isn't on speed. They keep track of points and send out copies of the best solutions submitted to the last set in each new one, with the name of the kids who did them. It's an alternative method of qualifying for the AIME--at least it used to be. </p>
<p>It works for some kids--you can just challenge yourself by doing problems and sending them off to be scored and comparing your answers to the best ones submitted. But in an odd way it's not as competitive because you aren't sitting there in a room with lots of kids competing. Some kids who don't do well in stress situations enjoy them and some kids who'd rather not spend time with the "geeks" at school do too. It might work well for your son--hope so ;)!</p>
<p>I'm second to none in advocating participation in math competitions, partly because I like my son to have teammates. But NEVER, EVER, EVER steer a kid to an EC that he just plain isn't interested in. DO nudge your child to do something well, but figure out what your child's interests and strengths are before deciding what the something to encourage is. </p>
<p>I don't think high school level math contests of the best kind are much of a boost to SAT and ACT math scores. (My son has an 800 on the SAT I math section, obtained at age eleven, and a 35 on the ACT math section, obtained at age twelve.) What helps one get high SAT or ACT math scores, as already noted above, is MASTERY of math that is mostly late elementary school mathematics, and good reading ability. </p>
<p>As to scholarships, having SOME hook that gets one into a well-endowed, meets-100-percent-of-need university is perhaps even better than getting a traditional third-party scholarship. But that hook should be something meaningful to the student. If it is not meaningful to the student, the probability of getting admission to a generous school, or a third-party scholarship, is greatly reduced, because the activity looks like yet another example of resume padding. The genuine math-likers who develop their math ability to the highest level may or may not participate in math contests at all--I know some very strong math students who do not--but they can't hide their enthusiasm for learning math well. The same applies to any other EC that your son may desire to pursue. </p>
<p>Get some good parent-child communication going and find out what can build on your child's intrinsic motivation.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions! Thanks for the ideas about individual study!</p>
<p>I guess I didn't know that the type of questions at these math contests is different from the ACT/SAT. I presumed that some of the same problem solving skills learned in contests would help with standardized tests.</p>
<p>I think S is good at math and secretly enjoys the contests. He just doesn't want his friends to know. I would like to see the math team have practices, work together as a team and congratulate each other in victory. (Maybe a high five?) Maybe they collectively can help each other understand it is OK to be smart and not try to hide it. </p>
<p>I heard one of the students say he hopes he qualifies for state in only one event. Then he can have more time to play frisbee on the college campus.</p>
<p>My son won local and state math contests in middle school, but did that with little commitment to special study or training. It just didn't interest him that much. In high school, however, he found something that really challenged him and fired his competitive spirits, while giving him a team to work with: debate. We couldn't have pushed him in math. We didn't need to in debate. He ended up as state champion in senior year. I'm sure it played a role in his overall intellectual development -- reading, researching, organizing arguments.</p>
<p>I agree with those above who say that your kid has to find the activities that interest him, even if he may have multiple talents. If he becomes seriously engaged in one or two major EC's that's rather enough. You can encourage, provide resources (including financial and emotional support). But let him choose.</p>
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<p>I heard one of the students say he hopes he qualifies for state in only one event. Then he can have more time to play frisbee on the college campus.>></p>
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<p>My S's team lost to another team at a competition. My reaction was: "Good, you won't have to go to the nationals." :) </p>
<p>If your S is good a math, would he want to go a summer math camp? Then he would not have to worry about his schoolmates' reaction. My S, who is not competitive, loves going to math camp. In fact, over the last couple of days, he and chums from all over the country have been emailing one another about going back to the same camp they've attended for the last two summers.</p>