should i get the Art of Problem Solving I or II?

<p>I am taking alg 2/trig over the summer so i can take precalc in 10th. I was going to go to some math camp or something like that, but i dislike most of the kids who usually go to those things and decided to just study on my own. I am going to be in 10th grade and taking precalc, so over the summer should i get the Art of Problem Solving I or II? Thanks</p>

<p>Also, I discovered i cant find the book in any bookstore, but i can only purchase it online. Unfortunately, i want to see inside of the book before buying it, so that I can see if it is exactly what i want. Can anyone give me an outline of the book or a problem from the book. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks again! :]</p>

<p>I believe you’d be looking for Volume II, as I recall II having more to do with trig and useful stuff (including number theory, etc), while Volume I was heavily geometry and basics that, although useful, probably won’t be as applicable. AoPS is ultimately meant for USAMO/IMO prep, so I’m not sure that’s exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for something challenging, subject specific, and that will test entire curriculum, I suggest you go to the test bank on floridamao.org and look under the precalculus division for regionals (january is easier than february than march), and they’ll usually be accompanied with solutions to explain difficult problems.</p>

<p>EDIT: I also suggest that you start with Volume I before you do II if you’ve never used AoPS… they are discrete, but you may not understand all of the usage.</p>

<p>You can look at the contents of the books on the AoPS website. Have you been involved in math competitions? If so what kind of scores have you gotten?</p>

<p>It depends. If you are planning to take AMC 10, then AoPS I is more applicable. Anything beyond should probably use AoPS II.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would buy AoPS II because it has a lot of non-typical high school topics that are more interesting. Most of the AoPS I stuff is covered in some manner in geometry/algebra I, except you need to practice problems (which you can find online).</p>

<p>well i am pretty good at math, but never participated in any competitions, and i just discovered the amc and other olympiads, a few months ago. So i have no prior experience :]</p>

<p>Well maybe you should take a old AMC 12 and or AIME (you can find them on AoPS) and see what you get. Because while you have probably already seen most of the stuff if Vol I you may not have learned it very well.</p>

<p>ok. i see that the amc 12 has 25 problem on the website, what scores are considered good,average, and bad? What should i score to skip to the 2nd book?thanks</p>

<p>I think if you can hit 90-100 on AMC12, Vol I is too easy.</p>

<p>(6 pts/question right, 0 per question wrong, 1.5/question unanswered)</p>

<p>Well I would agree with Faraday that if you’re scoring 100+ you probably would get a lot more out of Vol II, however you might still want to get Vol I because there is probably some material in it that you either haven’t seen before, or haven’t quite yet mastered. So if you can afford it I’d recommend both - however you are already scoring 100+ on the AMC 12s then you could probably get away with just asking questions on the AoPS forum to fill in any gaps from Vol I. As far as AMC scores take a look at their website - they have all types of stats.</p>