Ar. Student reflection notes to keep track of progress

 from a 9th grader Ar. 

Hello Mrs. Lin, 4/25

I hope you are well.

Sorry for sending this a bit late, but I wanted to share my reflection for what I have done this week. I first looked over the problems we did in class. I had some issue with the last problem-I am still not 100 percent on that one. I was hoping if you could please re-explain this in class, that would be helpful. I also looked over the formula sheet. While doing some of the AMC problems you gave, I tried to really focus on the first 7 problems. I was hoping we could go over some quicker ways to think on problems 3, 5, and 6 on the AMC 10 2023 A.

Sorry for sending this late.

Thank you,

Thank you Mrs. Lin. 5/2

I wanted to share my reflection for this week. I reviewed all of the problems we went through during class, and I really understood everything. I continued doing problems from the AMC 10 2023 A test, and I redid problems 3, 5, 7. Those were the problems I struggled with last week, so I reviewed those. I also tried to go on by doing problems 7 to 13, but it took me a while to do those and I didn’t get those correct. I went back to problems 1 through 7, except for the B test.

Thank you,

Hello Mrs. Lin, 5/11

I wanted to share my reflection from this week.

I felt good about all the problems we did in class, but I wanted to just quickly go over the last problem once more. I had a question on that one. I started a new test (2022 AMC 10 A), and did questions 1-10. I was hoping to go over questions 5, 7, 8, and 10. 

5/17 no notes 

5/24

This week I reviewed the SAT problems we went over in class. If you could please give me some of those harder SAT problems going forward for homework that would be great. I thought that they were good practice. 

I didn’t have a ton of time this week for AMC work, because I have finals for many classes coming up. However, I did do some problems from the 2016 AMC 10 A. 

I had some trouble with problems 11, 12 and 9. If we could please go over those that would be great Sorry about the late reflection again.

5/31

Hi Mrs. Lin,

I wanted to send you my reflection for this week. I re-did the AMC 10 2016 A test, including the problems from last week. I also did problems 13 to 20. I had questions on 13, 17, 18, and 20.

Thanks,

2025 Mathcounts state sprint #22 problem and solution : level 1 +

 

2025 Mathcounts state sprint

#22: Let n be a positive integer less than or equal to 1000. If the last two digits of n are reversed, the resulting integer is exactly 85 percent of n. What is the sum of the possible values of n?

Try this question first. Then scroll down for solution. 

Let n be a positive integer less than or equal to 1000. If the last two digits of n are reversed, the resulting integer is exactly 85 percent of n. What is the sum of the possible values of n?

Let the original number be:

$$n = 100h + 10t + u$$

The number formed by swapping the tens and units digits is:

$$n' = 100h + 10u + t$$

According to the problem:

$$n' = \frac{17}{20}n$$

So \( n \) has to be divisible by 20 (make sure you know why). This implies:

$$u = 0, \quad t \text{ is even}$$

Let:

$$t = 2k, \quad 0 \leq k \leq 4$$

Then:

$$n = 100h + 10t = 100h + 20k$$ $$n' = 100h + t = 100h + 2k$$

Now compute the difference:

$$n - n' = 18k$$

Also, from the given:

$$n - n' = n - \frac{17}{20}n = \frac{3}{20}n$$

Equating both expressions:

$$18k = \frac{3}{20}n \Rightarrow n = 120k$$

Since \( k \neq 0 \), we get:

$$n = 120k$$

Valid values for \( k \in \{1, 2, 3, 4\} \), so the numbers are:

$$120, \quad 240, \quad 360, \quad 480$$

Their sum is:

$$120 + 240 + 360 + 480 = 120(1 + 2 + 3 + 4) = 120 \times 10 = \boxed{1200}$$

V's record

 V's record 

weekly homework about 30 to 45 minutes 

extra videos, links optional 

First lesson:

2010 chapter sprint: 

Hi, I got a score of 22 and got questions 16, 22, 23, 24,25,27,29, and 30 wrong. 

I just guessed these questions because I didn't really find a way to do them.

Second meet: 

2011-12 Mathcounts handbook  (40 questions total) 

Warm Up 1: 8
Warm Up 2: 19,20

Warm Up 3: 32, 39 

Workout 1: 23, 24, 30

Third meet: 

2010 Mathcounts school test : 

Hi, I finished trying the Sprint and Target questions:

 these are the problems that I got wrong 

Sprint: I got 7/15 correct.

     15,16: Attempted but answer was wrong

     19,20,26,27,29: Didn't attempt

       30: Couldn't find a good method to do, but was able to solve it by listing out all the possibilities.

Target: I got 6/8 correct.

    The first 6 were relatively easy and I could find a clear way to do them

    The last 2, I couldn't find a way to approach the problem.

Fourth meet : 

2011 Mathcounts school test : last 15 sprint and last 4 target 

Sprint: Out of the last 15, 

I got 7 correct.

The questions that I got wrong were 20,21,22,24,27,28,29,30. 

I tried 21,22, and 27 but the answers were incorrect. I wasn't able to attempt the rest. 

Target: I got every question other than #5. 

However, questions 1 and 2, 

I got wrong at first, but when I retried them, 

I was able to get them. I read the problems wrong and didn't fully understand them the first time.

Fifth meet : review 

Sixth meet : 

2011 chapter 

Hi Mrs Lin! I was able to try both the target and the sprint round questions and here are my results:

Target: I missed 3 & 8, and I didn't attempt them.

Sprint: I got 17,21,23,24,25, 27,29,30.

I didn't attempt 27,29, and 30,

2012 Mathcounts school 

Hi Mrs Lin! I was able to finish both the chapter and target, and here are my results:

Target: I got 5,6,and 8 wrong. I didn't try any of them because I didn't know how to do them.

Sprint: I got 18,23,25,26, and 30

Apr. 30, 2023 

2012 Mathcounts chapter 

Hi Mrs. Lin! I hope your having a very good day and week! I tried both the target and the sprint. 

Target: I got only number 8 wrong, but I didn't know how to do it.

Sprint: I got number 22, 24, 26,28,29, and 30 wrong. I tried to do 22, but I got it wrong. The rest I didn't know how to do them..

May 7th, review 

May 13th, 2023 

2013 Mathcounts School 

Hi Mrs.Lin, I was able to try both the Target and the Sprint and here are my results!

Target (5/8) I got 6,7, and 8 wrong, however, I was able to figure out the answer to problem 6 when I reviewed it. 

Sprint: I got 30,29,28, and 24 wrong. 

May 20th, 2023

Hi Mrs Lin!

2013 Mathcounts Chapter 

I was able to try both the target and sprint round tests and here are my results:

Target: 6/8. I attempted the first 6 problems and got all of them right. I understood the problems fairly well and was able to do all of them on the first try.

sprint: I got 10/15 right. I got all problems I attempted right, and didn't attempt 30,28,25,24,21, and 19.

2014 Mathcounts school 

Hi Mrs Lin, I was able to finish both the target and the sprint, and here were my results!

Sprint: 22/30, I didn't get 18,19,24,25,26,28,29, and 30. I attempted number 18, but didn't get it.

Target: I got 5 out of 8 on the target, but after reviewing my answers, I was able to figure out number 5.

2015 Mathcounts school 

Hi Mrs Lin, I was able to try both the sprint and target. For the sprint, I got problems 20 and 27 wrong, and I didn't attempt any problems past 24 other than 27.

For my  Target I got numbers 6,7, and 8 wrong, and I didn't know how to approach any of them. 

Show Your Work, Or, How My Math Abilities Started to Decline

Show your work, or, how my math abilities started to decline

I think it's problematic the way schools teach Algebra. Those meaningless show-your-work approaches, without knowing what Algebra is truly about. The overuse of calculators and the piecemeal way of teaching without the unification of the math concepts are detrimental to our children's ability to think critically and logically.

Of course eventually, it would be beneficial to students if they show their work with the much more challenging word problems (harder Mathcounts state team round, counting and probability questions, etc...), but it's totally different from what some schools ask of our capable students.

How do you improve problem solving skills with tons of worksheets by going through 50 to 100 problems all look very much the same? It's called busy work. 

Quote:  "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Quotes from Richard Feynman, the famous late Nobel-laureate physicist. Feynman relates his cousin's unhappy experience with algebra:

My cousin at that time—who was three years older—was in high school and was having considerable difficulty with his algebra. I was allowed to sit in the corner while the tutor tried to teach my cousin algebra. I said to my cousin then, "What are you trying to do?" I hear him talking about x, you know."Well, you know, 2x + 7 is equal to 15," he said, "and I'm trying to figure out what x is," and I say, "You mean 4." He says, "Yeah, but you did it by arithmetic. You have to do it by algebra."And that's why my cousin was never able to do algebra, because he didn't understand how he was supposed to do it. I learned algebra, fortunately, by—not going to school—by knowing the whole idea was to find out what x was and it didn't make any difference how you did it. There's no such a thing as, you know, do it by arithmetic, or you do it by algebra. It was a false thing that they had invented in school, so that the children who have to study algebra can all pass it. They had invented a set of rules, which if you followed them without thinking, could produce the answer. Subtract 7 from both sides. If you have a multiplier, divide both sides by the multiplier. And so on. A series of steps by which you could get the answer if you didn't understand what you were trying to do.
So I was lucky. I always learnt things by myself.