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.

The Grid Technique in Solving Harder Mathcounts Counting Problems : from Vinjai

The following notes are from Vinjai, a student I met online. He graciously shares and offers the tips here on how to tackle those harder Mathcounts counting problems. 

The point of the grid is to create a bijection in a problem that makes it easier to solve. Since the grid just represents a combination, it can be adapted to work with any problem whose answer is a combination.

For example, take an instance of the classic 'stars and bars' problem (also known as 'balls and urns', 'sticks and stones', etc.):

Q: How many ways are there to pick an ordered triple (a, b, c) of nonnegative integers such that a+b+c = 8? (The answer is 10C2 or 45 ways.)

Solution I: 

This problem is traditionally solved by thinking of ordering 8 stars and 2 bars. An example is:

* * * |    | * * * * *

  ^       ^       ^

  a       b       c

This corresponds to a = 3, b = 0, c = 5.

Solution II: 

But this can also be done using the grid technique:

The red path corresponds to the same arrangement: a = 3, b = 0, c = 5. The increase corresponds to the value: a goes from 0 to 3 (that is an increase of 3), b goes from 3 to 3 (that is an increase of 0), and c goes from 3 to 8 (that is an increase of 5). So a = 3, b = 0, c = 5.

Likewise, using a clever 1-1 correspondence, you can map practically any problem with an answer of nCk to fit the grid method. The major advantage of this is that it is an easier way to think about the problem (just like the example I gave may be easier to follow than the original stars and bars approach, and the example I gave in class with the dice can also be thought of in a more numerical sense).

Similar Triangles: Team question : Beginning level

9. In the figure below, quadrilateral CDEG is a square with CD = 3, and quadrilateral BEFH is a rectangle. If EB = 5, how many units is BH? Express your answer as a mixed number

Triangle BED is a 3-4-5 right triangle and is similar to triangle GEF.

BE : ED = GE : EF = 5 : 3 = 3 : FE

EF = 9/5 = BH  The answer

Some articles on problem solving and parenting

Why America's Smartest Students Fail Math 

Are our kids failing in math because they can't read ? 

Kids of Helicopter Parents Are Sputtering Out 

The Juilliard Effect : Ten Years Later