Preparing For Math Competitions: Inspiring and Fun Presenter: Mr. Larry Wiener Math Department Chair Mirman School for Gifted lwiener@mirman.org 52 nd Annual CAG Annual Conference Anaheim, CA February 23, 2014
Philosophy To offer our students an opportunity to explore and expand their learning experience, we encourage them to participate in numerous math contests throughout the year. Many of the problems on these exams expose the students to concepts and topics that are either superficially covered or not mentioned at all in a traditional curriculum. Over the years, we have found that it is these competitions that ignite the spark in our students. The various contests encourage the students to investigate new ideas and to think laterally as problem solvers. While all the awards earned in these contests make us proud, the educational value exceeds those rewards.
Mirman School for Gifted presently enters the following contests:
Noetic Learning Math Contest We offer this contest to rooms 2-5 and Upper School 1 twice a year. Each contest consists of 20 problems to be answered in 45 minutes.
Continental Math League We offer this contest to rooms 3 through Upper School 4. Each exam consists of 6 problems to be taken in 30 minutes. Rooms 3 and 4 have three rounds given in January, February, and March. Rooms 5 and up take five rounds monthly beginning in November.
California Math League We offer this program to our rooms 5 and Upper School students. This is a single exam of 30 questions taken in 30 minutes.
Excellence in Math in Culver City This is a local contest consisting of ten individual (30 minutes) and ten team questions (20 minutes). Individual scores and team scores are compiled. The team score is the average of the five members individual scores plus the team round score. Mirman School sends two teams of five students each.
Don Bosco Technical Institute Math Competition All Mirman students in the Upper School math classes are invited to attend this rigorous 50 questions, one hour long multiple-choice exam. This is an eighth grade level contest. The top four scores determine the school score. Individual prizes are awarded for first, second, third, and honorable mention. This event has proven to be very popular with our student body due to the cleverly written problems and the festive atmosphere. The students are not deterred by the rigor or by their scores. Instead, our students respond by researching new and expanded concepts to better prepare for subsequent contests.
Mathcounts Mathcounts is an organization of engineers who design a competition to challenge, inspire, and discover the most talented of problem solvers. Each school is allowed to enter a team to compete. At Mirman School, this is offered to ten students who are selected based on commitment and performance on all the other contests. Four students form the school team and six students compete as individuals. The exam consists of three rounds. The sprint round is a forty-minute exam with 30 problems
Mathcounts No calculators are allowed on this round. The target round consists of eight questions given in pairs, each pair to be completed in six minutes. The team round is composed of ten questions. The group is allotted 20 minutes. Calculators are permitted in the target and team rounds. The top five teams in the chapter or region (Santa Monica/ South Bay) advance to the state finals at UC Irvine.
American Mathematics Contest 8 This is an eighth grade national exam consisting of 25 multiple-choice questions. Students have 40 minutes without a calculator to complete the exam. This is the entry-level exam for the selection of the national Olympiad math team.
Math Olympiads Noetic Learning Resources PracticeAMC 8, 10, 12 http://www.moems.org Books of past tests Problem of the month http://www.noetic-learning.com/ http://www.maa.org/math-competitions Past exams Practice books Don Bosco Technical Institute https://www.boscotech.edu/ Past tests
Resources Art of Problem Solving http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/ Alcumus FTW Courses Mathcounts http://mathcounts.org/ Archives Handbook - Problem of the Week OPLET (online problem library & extraction tool) Continental Math League http://www.continentalmathematicsleague.com/ Books of past questions California Math League http://www.mathleague.com/ Books of past tests
Resources Sigma Math Contests http://www.sigmamathcontest.com/ Books Practice Problems http://mathcounts.saab.org/mc.cgi NCTM Palette of Problems in Teaching in the Middle School Calendar Problems in Mathematics Teacher
AMC 8 A father takes his twins and a younger child out to dinner on the twins' birthday. The restaurant charges $4.95 for the father and $0.45 for each year of a child's age, where age is defined as the age at the most recent birthday. If the bill is $9.45, which of the following could be the age of the youngest child? (A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5
Mathcounts Each day a man floating on a raft paddles 3 mi north, but each night while he rests, the current of the river carries the raft 2 mi south. How many days will it take him to first reach a location 50 mi north of his starting location?
Continental Math League Each face of a 5 5 5 cube is painted red. This cube is then cut into 125 unit cubes. How many of the unit cubes have no faces that are painted red?
Mathcounts Safir can choose how he gets paid for a job. He can be paid $1000 all at once, or he can earn $1 for the first day, $2 for the second, $4 for the third, and so on, so that each day s pay is double that of the previous day. What is the positive difference of the total amounts Samir can be paid for completing a ten-day job, based on these two compensation plans?
Olympiad In 1 minute 36 seconds a car travels one mile. At that rate how far would it travel in three hours?
Olympiad When Lauren was born on January 7, her father said, On January 8, 2050, the year will be 50 times her age then. What is her age one week from today?
Mathcounts Circle P has radius 10 cm. Two perpendicular radii are drawn, and a smaller circle is drawn tangent to both radii and the larger circle. What is the radius of the smaller circle? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.
Noetic Learning Bill, Daniel, Ethan, Jack and Sam are on the same soccer team. Their soccer jerseys are numbered from 1 to 5. Based on the following facts, what is Jack s number? The sum of Bill s number and Ethan s number is 5. The sum of Daniel s number and Sam s number is 9.
Mathcounts Mrs. Cox s math team participated in a math contest. One fourth of the team members received 5 points each, and 3 4 of the team members received 4 points each. The team received 51 points altogether. How many students are on Mrs. Cox s math team?
Mathcounts Judy has two more sisters than she has brothers. Her brother, Mark, has twice as many sisters as he has brothers. How many children are in their family?
Mathcounts Three roommates share the cost of a $300 television. The first pays one-half the total amount paid by the second and third roommates. The second roommate pays onethird the total amount paid by the first and third roommates. How much does the third roommate pay toward the television?
AMC 10 2000(20002000) = (A) 20002001 (B) 40002000 (C) 20004000 (D) 4,000,0002000 (E) 20004,000,000
AMC 10 The Fibonacci sequence 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,... Starts with two1s,and each term afterwards is the sum of its two predecessors. Which one of the ten digits is the last to appear in the units position of a number in the Fibonacci sequence? (A) 0 (B) 4 (C) 6 (D) 7 (E) 9