<p>Too cold here…!!!
Winter formals here too next week…But don’t think S will be attending- not as mature yet I guess…
I was about to ask you guys about the abbreviations that are used here, some of which I have figured out, but then I saw a thread on this forum about this…LOL.</p>
<p>Most hilarious was PLOS: " Parents looking over shoulder" to let friends know mom or dad is around… while they are on the computer</p>
<p>I think our winter dance is in 2 weeks. It is also girls ask guys (that seems pretty common). Ours is only for junior and senior girls and their dates. Lots of traditions - jr girls wear short dresses and dates wear suits. Senior girls wear long dresses and guys wear tuxes. S’13 told everyone that he would only go with a junior because he didn’t want to wear a tux (even though he owns one). So, apparently the girl (a senior) who wanted to ask him ended up asking him to prom already, while another junior friend “gets” him for the winter dance. I haven’t broken it to S yet that he has to wear a tux to prom!</p>
<p>Ah dances. I have no idea about anything here. D has no interest. She went to one in 6th grade. Not her thing. Especially since you can’t wear jeans, a pithy tee & Converse ;)</p>
<p>Do I recall correctly that some of your kids have taken part in the American Math Competition (ACM?) If so, what is the difference between 10 & 12? D was “asked” to participate by her math teacher, but has now realized that it’s one of the times when the answer can only be yes. I think she said it’s next Tuesday morning. I do not have a math household so this is new to me.</p>
<p>AMC 10/12 A is next Tuesday. AMC 10/12 B is usually a couple of weeks later.
Susan has explained in nicely a few post ago. Basically 12 is more difficult than 10, about 30% of questions are identical. AoPS site is full of questions from past years, go there if your daughter would like to practice some 
[AMC</a> Problems and Solutions - AoPSWiki](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/AMC_Problems_and_Solutions]AMC”>Art of Problem Solving)</p>
<p>My kids will be writing it after school, S’s school never does it during school hours. I think the kids would do better if it was in A.M., but there is a firm no from the administration…</p>
<p>Thanks Kelowna & Susan! I knew I had read about it somewhere but I skimmed because well, I didn’t think that I’d have to know anything about it. After reading Susan’s post, I’m pretty sure that I can say I won’t have to learning anything about AIME. D mentioned it’s being administered during the first 2 periods of school. And I’m not even going to mention the prep questions to her; the sophomores are in the middle of the annual HUGE project that is run jointly by the english & AP Euro teachers. The ridiculous homework level has hit a new high this week.</p>
<p>AMC is 75 minutes long.</p>
<p>Just got back from work. S had an early morning rowing competition - took 2nds, yay!!!
Then robotics, then ARML, now he is happily engaged in some online game
I’m sure there is plenty of homework, but there is always Sunday (we had to say no to an all night gaming session at a friend’s house, but looks like he is managing just fine being at home; hope the close proximity of his bed will be useful sometime after midnight…)</p>
<p>P.S. Forgot to mention about the video contest . He took second place, and although his clip won’t be shown in local theaters, he won $250 and a scholarship from a local film making company.
I think movie making is what my S loves most at this time in his life…</p>
<p>S’s school will conduct AMC on Tuesday morning. Here the new semester just got started last week, so things are a bit slow…not much homework this week. S got his first semester report card online Friday. Did fairly well. For the last two weekend, S is on his new net-book he got as his birthday present and trying to experiment with it and doing some work for Robotics. I am a bit worried he is getting addicted to it.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your S Kelowna on his achievements this week.
May I ask what is ARML?</p>
<p>ARML is The American Regions Mathematics League. The organization hosts annual national competition in early June every year. D1 (a college junior) participated every year when she was in HS. D2, a freshman in HS did a selection trial in our state in Dec last year and will participate in the second selection trial in March. If she gets selected, she probably will join our state team.</p>
<p>This is the website: [The</a> Official American Regions Mathematics League Web Site](<a href=“http://www.arml.com/]The”>http://www.arml.com/)</p>
<p>Have fun Kelowna’s S, DONIVRIAN’s S and RobD’s D (and my D2) with next Tue AMC-A. D2 is taking AMC10A and AMC12B.
AMC-B will be on 2/23.</p>
<p>My daughter decided to do IB. Schedule is set for 2 years. She just needs to choose her elective and a 1/2 semester class now.
I’m excited for her!!</p>
<p>Yes, good luck to all the kids taking AMC A this coming Tuesday!
Mine is not sure which B he is going to write, 10 or 12. Last year 10 was unusually hard so S was not sure he was going to advance to AIME , but they did lower the floor (for the first time in many years). Some kids like to write AMC 10 B to become state winners, I know of one student who is doing it exactly for this reason this year. Mine will probably write 12 if he will be sure of AIME qualification after 10A.<br>
SUSAN - do you have any idea how to make them stronger at AIME? If you do, please share.</p>
<p>Got a letter Saturday that S’s chem teacher has recommended him for a special chemistry course over the summer at the state flagship. It is Chem 1060. One more summer elective to think about. I really want son to apply to PROMYS, but where is he going to find time to think about the problems??? It is becoming more and more difficult to take them back to Europe for the summer
Wishing good week to all of you…</p>
<p>^^^ do you have any idea how to make them stronger at AIME?</p>
<p>I am still trying to figure this out with D2.</p>
<p>When D1 was in HS, she was natural. She did not study that much at all. As the matter of fact she has never really built the study habit to this day. But she made usamo qualification every year in HS.</p>
<p>With D2, things are somewhat different, even their level of intelligence is similar. D2 qualified for AIME in the past two years (in 7th and 8th grade), but only got 2 (2009) and 3 (2010) in AIME tests. I believe that her maturity was not there yet (but H thought D2 was less insightful). I bought the intermediate series of books from AoPS for D2 to study, but she had real difficulty in finding time to study them. Her school gave too much homework for IB students (I do plan to complain about the homework to her school). I am waiting to see whether she can do better this year in AIME. She would not have problem to qualify for AIME. After this Tuesday, I will ask her to try AIME questions (questions listed on AoPS). </p>
<p>I do believe D2 will gradually do better in AIME. Summer would be a good time to have more focused study without much homework. We are discussing about sending her to a math summer camp. She went to PROMYS last summer. She had a hard time there because she was one of the younger students and the program roomed her with a senior (the reason behind was to have older student to help younger one; however, an 8th grader and a senior do not have common language). But looking back, she learnt a lot there. She is thinking about going back to PROMYS (last year PROMYS acceptance rate was 30%) or apply for Awesomemath. PROMYS is centered on number theory. Awesomemath is focused on competition math. Many students went to Awesomemath claimed that the program really helped them with AIME.</p>
<p>Kelowna, I don’t know if the above would be any help to you/ your S?</p>
<p>good luck for all of your children for tueday</p>
<p>Thank you susan4, for the information.My S hasn’t prepared much for the competitive math exams so far. I will definitly share the website with him. I am learning a lot here in CC.
hippiechicken: congratulations to your daughter for the IB program she is taken. ENJOY…</p>
<p>My S is natural at math, but not as natural as to make to USAMO
He likes math and science, but doing math problems in his spare time??? No, he would rather compose music, make movies, meet with friends. It has been like that always, HS did not change anything here. When it comes close to competition, he will do more problems (like this morning, while eating breakfast, he was still working on one problem from the AMC he did Sunday). But honestly, there is not enough free time in his life…
S does not like AoPS books. We own a lot of them, but he is just not that into them.
Recently I have purchased “The art and craft of problem solving” (see here [Amazon.com:</a> The Art and Craft of Problem Solving (9780471789017): Paul Zeitz: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Art-Craft-Problem-Solving/dp/0471789011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297092683&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Art-Craft-Problem-Solving/dp/0471789011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297092683&sr=8-1) ), my H is reading the book right now and he says it is absolutely excellent.
You are saying that the admission rate to PROMYS is about 30%??? I though it should be lower than that since they accept only about 60 students?
My S went to Awesomemath after 7th grade. He did not truly enjoy the experience, although we though that it has helped him tremendously. He went while it was still in Texas, I think that now is is on both coasts.
There is also Canada/USA Math camp…
For some reason I thought that Promys was most difficult to gain admission to…</p>
<p>Donivrian - just google those and you will plenty of info…</p>
<p>Heading to the meeting with an IB advisor.
I wonder what new I will learn…</p>
<p>Kelowna: I’ll be interested to hear what they say. I’m finding that there’s such variability from IB program to IB program. Good luck!</p>
<p>I just googled them: PROMYS AND AWASOMEMATH… Good options for summer for mathematically talented kids. I am also going to post it in our school website so if any one is interested in my school can apply.
I am just amazed at my igonrance on many of the topic that are being discussed here…What an eye opener!!I wish I had seen this years before.
Kelowna…me too intersted in hearing what IB advisor has to say.</p>
<p>Kelowna: I think whatever I know about Math competition, you know them as well. PROMYS is probably one of the more difficult programs to get in. They accepted about 70 students last year. Though 30% acceptance rate is not that low, but students applied are all self-selected. Since your S is a sophomore, it is the right time for him to do PROMYS. D2 learnt a lot mathematically (in number theory). But socially, she had a hard time, being one of the younger students, feeling insecure and too sensitive to be called froshy (she was a rising HS freshman then). She would have a much better time this year if she decides to join PROMYS again. I can see why your S did not enjoy AwesomeMath a few years ago, because he was only a 7th grader at that time. He probably will get a lot more out of that program at his current level (with more maturity in math). </p>
<p>We have the book The Art and Craft of Problem Solving. But neither D1 nor D2 ever touched that book. That book is above D1s natural level (proof based). She would have to study and put real effort to be able to understand the material and to write proofs, which she never did. She would rather spend time on fun stuff. I always wonder: if she did put effort when she was in HS, would she be able to achieve the next level? My D1 is actually very similar to your S. She plays multiple instruments (some of them at very high level); talks to many friends online and in real life; plays competitive games online (and competed in poetry competition online and won during her freshman year in college). She is a total free spirit. </p>
<p>D2 also has friends and spends tremendous amount of time on Facebook and on the phone with them. When D2 got her new cellphone, her data usage during the first week was over 300 MB. Kids are kids. They have to play. That is why I think it is a good time during summer break for them to focus on what they are good at. During the rest of the school year, between friends, games, ECs and horrendous amount of HW, it is impossible for them to put real time in thinking hard problems. My D2 spends on average no more than 2-3 hours per week on math outside of her classroom math (D1 did less than that then). </p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear anything interesting from your Ss IB advisor. In our county, IB students are selected based on their academic performance in the middle schools (including grades, standard tests and assay writing). Students get admitted to IB right after they finish their 8th grade. If you are not selected, you cannot switch into IB. We do have some students drop out of IB, usually during the first 9-weeks. I realize there are huge differences from IB program to IB program.</p>
<p>Looks like possibly 7 (seven !!!) AP classes next year, and to quote guidance " you have to take these to be competitve" .
More later…</p>
<p>Wow! 7? to be competitive where? In HS or in college? What will that have his senior year look like?</p>
<p>We had a little chat about scheduling at dinner. The GCs are visiting the sophomores tomorrow to hand out the registration materials. D will be taking 3APs out of 6 classes (with 2 honors classes that don’t have an AP equivalent & one regular level class that dovetails with her interests.) The most APs she’s heard of is a friend who is taking 5; she’s one of the kids continuing with IB. </p>
<p>As she was going to up to finish some homework D said “I remember when I used to have a life!”</p>
<p>I don’t think it would even be possible to take more than 5 AP classes junior year at S’13’s high school. Most of the top kids are taking 3 or 4 AP’s next year. Our school doesn’t really offer an honors level (and no school in our district offers IB), just preAP for freshmen and sophomores. There are “honors” level for choir, band and orchestra - you play in the same ensemble but have additional assignments like essays and attending outside concerts.</p>