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I generally think math competitions do more harm than good for math outreach, especially if only 60(!!) students for a country the size of the US are being give

I generally think math competitions do more harm than good for math outreach, especially if only 60(!!) students for a country the size of the US are being given any actual development after the initial tests.

joe_the_user 2y ago
I took part in math competitions as part of a math club in High School during the 70s. It was fun, made me think and was a bit of a social outlet. I don't think any one test was that important - we took a bunch of standard and experimental national tests and monthly meetups had their own problems. All that said, my impression is current math clubs and competitions have been taken over by kids just wanting credit for college rather than the kids of my era, who were there 'cause they actually enjoyed math. If the only purpose you can see for math competitions is find a few very talented kids, yeah, well then they would qualify as counter-productive.
- fn-mote 2y ago
  > my impression is current math clubs and competitions have been taken over by kids just wanting credit for college I work directly with students in this field and my experience is that most are involved for the interest, challenge, or social aspect. If you are involved with “pay to play” programs like AoPS, you probably see more resume-grooming. Nobody I know would continue to donate their time if they perceived it was primarily fluff.
  - joe_the_user 2y ago
    Good Hear!
Animats 2y ago
Outside the few hundred top mathematicians, how many advance the field much?
- downrightmike 2y ago
  Every now and again, a tardy student writes down an impossible to solve problem and solves it because he thought it was just homework.
  - historyforsale 2y ago
    > Every now and again As far as I can tell, this has only happened once, in 1939 [1]. [1]: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-problem/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-proble...
- contravariant 2y ago
  Depends what you mean by advance. If nobody but those few hundred mathematicians was even aware of mathematics then what would be the point?

joe_the_user 2y ago

I took part in math competitions as part of a math club in High School during the 70s. It was fun, made me think and was a bit of a social outlet. I don't think any one test was that important - we took a bunch of standard and experimental national tests and monthly meetups had their own problems. All that said, my impression is current math clubs and competitions have been taken over by kids just wanting credit for college rather than the kids of my era, who were there 'cause they actually enjoyed math. If the only purpose you can see for math competitions is find a few very talented kids, yeah, well then they would qualify as counter-productive.

fn-mote 2y ago
> my impression is current math clubs and competitions have been taken over by kids just wanting credit for college I work directly with students in this field and my experience is that most are involved for the interest, challenge, or social aspect. If you are involved with “pay to play” programs like AoPS, you probably see more resume-grooming. Nobody I know would continue to donate their time if they perceived it was primarily fluff.
- joe_the_user 2y ago
  Good Hear!

Animats 2y ago

Outside the few hundred top mathematicians, how many advance the field much?

downrightmike 2y ago
Every now and again, a tardy student writes down an impossible to solve problem and solves it because he thought it was just homework.
- historyforsale 2y ago
  > Every now and again As far as I can tell, this has only happened once, in 1939 [1]. [1]: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-problem/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-unsolvable-math-proble...
contravariant 2y ago
Depends what you mean by advance. If nobody but those few hundred mathematicians was even aware of mathematics then what would be the point?