<p>Hey kids! My name is Mr. fireflake78 and I would like to tell you a story.</p>
<p>Will a discrete math class (with Calc I and Calc II prerequisite) help train me for math competitions like the AMC10? I'm a rising sophomore who got a 5 on the BC calc test, so I have the credits already. :)</p>
<p>Yes, as competitions frequently have problems on topics like combinatorics and number theory, which your discrete math class will likely cover. I suggest looking at AoPS for books and classes that are more focused on those competitions, however (not to mention the forums!).</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ve already bought all of the AoPS books. And the nifty documentary!</p>
<p>Is Discrete Math harder than BC Calc or Diffy Q’s?</p>
<p>In my opinion, I say BC calc and Diffy are easy, because they are plug and chug classes. Discrete math requires more intuition, and certainly would help.</p>
<p>I was born without a spine. Should this affect my learning at the community college and/or my chances to Harvard?</p>
<p>Don’t do it for you chances to Harvard. I’ll stop you right now. Do it for the love of math. Do what you love.</p>
<p>While that class will help, focusing more on contests themselves will help you even more; use the class as a beginning. Going around AoPS and just doing problems will further your venture into contest math and doing well on it.</p>
<p>Also, anyone who does math just to get into college is going to end up hating it.</p>
<p>I really don’t recommend grinding math for college. In addition to what’s already been said, math is simply one of the hardest subjects to succeed in through hard work. Choose one of the other olympiads.</p>
<p>discrete math is very useful for competitions and a great introduction to “real math”</p>
<p>plus you learn a lot</p>
<p>^That probably depends on the course you take. At UCLA there’s a class called Intro to Discrete Structures (maybe this is slightly different) and half of the people that take it are CS majors. I get the impression that not many Math majors take it.</p>
<p>Seems like a CC class would lean toward the applied side. Still, it would certainly help for competitions.</p>
<p>yeah the one i took at my high school was mostly cs people. there were some proofs but they were very simple ones. and yeah cc classes might be too easy for a smart kid like yourself. do you have access to a four year university?</p>