Competition Math for Middle School

I'm doing Mathcounts in my school, and wanted some resources to help me perform better in the chapter and state competitions. I was on and online course at artofproblemsolving.com for advanced Mathcounts/AMC 8, and in the previous years I had taken a course on Johns Hopkins CTY. I bought this book on Artofproblemsolving.com because it was meant for contest "mathletes" like me. Instantly, I focused areas on my weak sections of math, like probability/counting, and geometry. I reviewed the probability section for a few days and in what seems like an instant, it became my best subject. This book teaches the reader through the concepts first, with a few worked examples, then lets you do it on your own. The problems are challenging, fun, and serve as an excellent resource for sharpening skills on weak areas. Now, I'm working on the geometry section. Also, this book shows slick methods for hard problems, like "How many different rectangles can be formed on an 8x8 chessboard?" Overall, I think this is an excellent resource for one who is serious about competition math and wants to excel in competitions like mathcounts. A last thing I would recommend is that people who want to buy this book is that they should be somewhat confident that they will proceed to state mathcounts(or at least, have some experience).In general, I thought this was an amazing book!!

I am a middle school math team coach constantly looking for good material to use with my students, as well as books that can teach me some better ways to work through the problems. This book gives me both, and I am ordering more for my math team because of it. Each concept is organized by larger topic and explained clearly, with practice problems similar to what you would find in a Math Counts or AMC contest. You will learn some new tricks (they were new to me at least) that helps solve problems much more quickly. I recommend it to new coaches who have caught the math competition bug but don't know where to get materials, or even experienced coaches who want another outstanding resource for their library. For someone still trying to learn all of the ins and outs of middle school math contests, this has vaulted into a spot as one of my go-to resources, along with the Art of Problem Solving series and old Math Counts problems.

I am in my Math Counts team in Middle School and this was a great book. It talked about a lot of interesting math-related topics. All of my team mates had gotten this book, so I decided to buy it too and it was a good decision. I will recommend this book to everyone who needs some math competition help in middle school.

The best math

I got this for my 7th grade son who wants to do better at math count next year. I wondered how all these kids were so smart, ...well they were not only smart, but they had studied these types of books so that they knew how to do all these smart problems. Although they have done a good job of compiling it to provide broad spectrum of math problems, it would be quite difficult for a kids to study on their own as their explanation is not easily understood by kids alone. I had to explain some of the explanation on the book. Overall, I rate it highly for it's concise compilation of really neat problems and diversity of topics covered. Thanks for a great resource!

I just bought this book from Amazon a week ago and I have so far gone though the first few questions in the book with my going-to-middle-school daughter and both of us really liked it. On one hand these questions are different from what my daughter usually have and are challenging in thinking, on the other hand these questions do not require so much advanced knowledge or skills more than a middle schooler have so my daughter can actually understand and learn from them. Kudos to the author!

I use this book as a supplement to my daughter's school math. I like this book because it explains how simple mathematical concepts can be applied in competition level. This book provides with many practice questions that students can practice until they get familiar with similar questions. My daughter is smart but sometimes, can be scared of these competition math questions. This book is not too difficult that both average and smart students can learn from it. The explanation is simple but comprehensive. This book is not filled with those arrogant questions that can make kids feel defeatism in math. I gave the questions in the probability section to my daughter after she learned probability at the school. She learned how school math can be expanded and applied to the competition level from this book. Not all kids who are interested in math are genius. This book is for those students. I highly recommend this book.

This book is good in parts but the difficulty is uneven across sections. Problems for some sections are "just right" in terms of the extent to which the subject matter has been introduced, and for the intended audience. Other sections have problems that basically go from "zero to 100mph" without much runway or introduction. I am still working through it with my son but we have learnt not to spend too much time on certain problems or sections that are not properly sized.

This is a great book. Excellent for general math knowledge at middle and high school levels, no matter if the student is planning to go for any math competitions at all. I think this is what the modern world citizen should know if they complete today's high school, no matter where you live.

Awesome!

If it takes someone 5 min to complete a page of work on a regular math book, it would take the same person 3-4 times longer to complete a page of work (questions) on this book ... and that's because this book is "dense" in contents, each page has tremendous amount of info and each question/step challenges students little more than prior question. Would highly recommend for someone who is interested in competitive math.

The material is somewhat easy for a 7th grader. Ideal for an advanced 5th or 6th grader. However, it does cover a wide variety of competitive math material (although in a superficial and hurried way). It's still a good introduction to a lot of math topics.

My son liked it.