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While congratulations are in order for the team I don't know by what standards the writer judges them to be the "greatest". I have not heard of "Mu Alpha Theta"

While congratulations are in order for the team I don't know by what standards the writer judges them to be the "greatest". I have not heard of "Mu Alpha Theta" until reading this article. The standard (as in "most participated") math competition sequence is AMC 10/12, AIME, USA(J)MO, IMO. For teams Math Count (for middle schoolers) and ARML are also popular. The winners at these events are so exceptional it is hard to see a formula to their success other than extraordinary talents and efforts. That being said I did observe that in my son's public high school the math team members very much teach and inspire each other.

teacherscrub18 4y ago
Sure the WINNERS are exceptional. They would be in any competition. The great part is that just preparing (practicing) makes people stronger problem solvers. Which is not the case in typical maths schoolwork. To echo the parent, though: the school is NOT bragging about success on AMC contests. Probably because they do not have it. Similar prep with a strong group of incoming students does work to produce successful AMC and AIME results, I can attest.
- gloryjulio 4y ago
  > Which is not the case in typical maths schoolwork. Because their 'preparations' usually suck. As someone has gone down the path many years ago (think pre 00), the problem is that many teachers didn't teach the right way to tackle the hard problem consistently. I quit the math olympic class half way in high school because I couldn't keep up with it anymore, as I was only brute forcing. I only learnt how to consistently tackle hard problems and being self introspective to maintain the high performance relatively easily many years later when I joined the workforce and being much better at learning. I feel like this kind knowledge is lost in the current schools especially under circumstances, where let the students to explore their best potentials are no longer the goal. And many ppl like me only rediscovered how to learn and work hard correctly and joyfully after adulthood through various online articles and videos.
  - mlyle 4y ago
    > Because their 'preparations' usually suck. I think we're much better off now, thanks to Art of Problem Solving's Alcumus, Richard Rusczyk, all the top-tier video lessons out there, etc-- along with just things like being able to hand out Khan practice for general math topics. We're getting much better at teaching top students how to solve hard problems (and, as a result, the AMC8/10/12, AIME, Olympiads, MathCounts, et al... are getting much harder-- these days if you want to prepare for the AMC8 you should be studying old AMC10 problems). The same can't be said about overall societal performance in teaching the entire population.
jjtheblunt 4y ago
(M)(A)(TH) i guess it's a for-fun name?

teacherscrub18 4y ago

Sure the WINNERS are exceptional. They would be in any competition. The great part is that just preparing (practicing) makes people stronger problem solvers. Which is not the case in typical maths schoolwork. To echo the parent, though: the school is NOT bragging about success on AMC contests. Probably because they do not have it. Similar prep with a strong group of incoming students does work to produce successful AMC and AIME results, I can attest.

gloryjulio 4y ago
> Which is not the case in typical maths schoolwork. Because their 'preparations' usually suck. As someone has gone down the path many years ago (think pre 00), the problem is that many teachers didn't teach the right way to tackle the hard problem consistently. I quit the math olympic class half way in high school because I couldn't keep up with it anymore, as I was only brute forcing. I only learnt how to consistently tackle hard problems and being self introspective to maintain the high performance relatively easily many years later when I joined the workforce and being much better at learning. I feel like this kind knowledge is lost in the current schools especially under circumstances, where let the students to explore their best potentials are no longer the goal. And many ppl like me only rediscovered how to learn and work hard correctly and joyfully after adulthood through various online articles and videos.
- mlyle 4y ago
  > Because their 'preparations' usually suck. I think we're much better off now, thanks to Art of Problem Solving's Alcumus, Richard Rusczyk, all the top-tier video lessons out there, etc-- along with just things like being able to hand out Khan practice for general math topics. We're getting much better at teaching top students how to solve hard problems (and, as a result, the AMC8/10/12, AIME, Olympiads, MathCounts, et al... are getting much harder-- these days if you want to prepare for the AMC8 you should be studying old AMC10 problems). The same can't be said about overall societal performance in teaching the entire population.

jjtheblunt 4y ago

(M)(A)(TH) i guess it's a for-fun name?