Showing posts with label student reflection notes. Show all posts

Saturday, September 13, 2025

2017 AMC 12 B Reflection Notes from H

2017 AMC 12B — Practice Log

Quick reflections and timing notes.

Q1–Q23: all correct ✅ Q22: time sink ⏳ Q24–Q25: not answered ❌

Notable Questions

#13: Took me a while; need to keep practicing Burnside's lemma/technique. (note to self: revisit topic & drill)
#22: Became a time sink. Pause sooner; sketch structure, estimate difficulty, and decide quickly whether to skip.
#24: Didn’t understand the question—unclear how to set up the average. Re-read carefully; translate wording to variables first.
#25: Ran out of time.

Process & Timing Notes

Not enough time at the end—was able to draw the diagram but didn’t complete the setup.
For average/setup questions: define variables immediately, write the equation before computing.
When a problem starts ballooning (>3–4 minutes without structure), mark and move.

Follow-Up Plan

Monday, September 1, 2025

9/1/2025 Student Reflection Note from H

2018 AMC 12A Notes 🎉

😊 Only 2 Wrong — Great Job!

Wrong

22: Not sure how to express √abi cleanly.
Couldn’t manage complex numbers or split the area into 4 pieces.
25: Was able to get the powers of 10 and simplify, but not the final casework step.

Right

15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24

8/31/2015 Student reflection notes from H

2019 AMC 12B Notes

Problems 20–25 → Wrong

20: Tried coordinate bash but didn’t realize AOBX is cyclic.
21: Very close, but made a mistake in casework.
22: No idea how to estimate.
24: Confusing — unsure how to approach.
25: Imaginary numbers solution was smart.
Also homothety solution was smart too.

Problems 15–19, 23 → Right

Saturday, August 23, 2025

8/23/2025 student reflection notes from H ～ Welcome back to the States.

2019 AMC 12A – Reflection Log

Quick notes on misses, themes, and time sinks.

Incorrect

#22. Problem and Solutions
#24. Found all prime exceptions but missed 4 — Problem and Solutions
#25. Got after hint → need work on angle chasing in cyclic quadrilaterals — Problem and Solutions

Correct

Problems solved:

#15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #23

#17 → learn Newton's Sums
#23 → algebra took a long time.

Next Steps

Drill Newton’s Sums identities; derive first 3–4 power sums using Vieta.
Re-check prime-exception logic; include 2 and 4 in prime-exception checklist.
Daily 10-min cyclic quadrilateral angle-chasing (use Ptolemy, equal angles, arc marks).
Practice pacing to avoid #17-style time sinks; enforce a 2-minute “move on” rule.
Algebra endurance reps (substitution, factoring patterns), especially for de-jangling #23-type problems.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

8/19/2025 student reflection notes from H

2020 AMC 12B Reflections

Wrong Questions

Q19: Not sure how to approach. My casework method was too complicated.
Q21: Solution made sense. I made the substitution u = 70n + 50, but couldn’t expand it properly.
Q23: Saw that n = 2, n = 3 worked, but I couldn’t eliminate later cases of n ≥ 4.
Q25: Solution seemed easy, but I didn’t see the graphical method earlier. I have to get better at identifying that.

Correct Questions

Q15: Solved correctly.
Q16: Solved correctly.
Q17: Solved correctly.
Q18: Solved correctly.
Q20: Solved correctly.
Q22: Solved correctly.
Q24: Solved correctly.

Friday, August 15, 2025

8/15/2025 2020 AMC 12 A student reflection notes from H while in India

2020 AMC 12A Log

Wrong

Q18 – Tried other equation → could not solve
Q23 – Hard casework (I could guess if correct, more of a check)
Q24 – Weird set, specialized translations in geometric problem
Q25 – Really hard Q. Required graphing + adaptation for 2π trap but not confident/solid

Right

Q15
Q16
Q17
Q19
Q20
Q21
Q22

Thursday, August 14, 2025

8/14/2025 SAT/AMC 12 student reflection notes from Ay

1) Reviewed the attached problems and solutions 2) Reviewed the SAT vocabulary words and tried the SAT questions. I was able to answer all three questions correctly. 3) Attempted the 2023 AMC 12 A. I skipped these questions- #15, #21, #22, #24 and #25 Rest all questions were answered correctly.

Thursday, August 7, 2025

8/6/2025 2014 AMC 12 B student reflection notes from H while in India :)

2014 AMC 12B Log

Correct:

15
16
17
18 – took time
19
20
22 – time-sink
24
25

Wrong:

21 – struggled with too many variables
23 – no idea how to approach

Sunday, August 3, 2025

7/27/2025 2023 Mathcounts state sprint student reflection notes An

2023 Mathcounts State Sprint:

Q13 Rate silly mistake made miscalculation when I was trying to find the rates always double check if the rates if it make sense with the question

Q21 number theory had an idea but it didn't work because I didn't count all the ordered triplets
Learn how to do these problems fast and accurately

Q22 probability didn't know how to do it