Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion New Math Book for Gifted Students

Thanks! I'll report back how it goes. My experience is that sometimes she dives in full-bore, and sometimes she refuses to look at something for a while and then "sneaks" it when I'm not around. She just finished 4th grade math (she's in a gifted program that works one year ahead), so I think she's probably right in the sweet spot for it.

My DS7 has just finished grade 5 maths (home/virtual schooling), and he has also self-taught himself most of prealgebra by playing around online. But most of what he has seen is "routine schoolwork", and he has not seen much in the way of "challenging problems".

Do you have any suggestions for books or other resources he could use?

Any ideas for getting ready for AMC8 in a year or two?


Also a question about MIT. In some countries it is possible to do an undergraduate degree purely in STEM subjects, or even purely in mathematics, whereas in the USA you usually have to spend a significant amount of time on non-STEM subjects. What is the situation at MIT? Can you focus more on STEM subjects compared to other American institutions, or do you have to do the same kind of "liberal arts" degree that most American institutions have?

My Elementary School book is aimed at this kind of need -- covering some of the finer points of 3rd-5th grade math and asking much harder problems. Parts might be too elementary, but there are very few 7-year-olds who'd have this problem with the whole book.

Among books of elementary school challenge problems, George Lechner's books are probably my favorite. The only drawback is that they're fairly expensive. I'd also recommend any of Martin Gardner's books. Their emphasis is more on puzzles than curricular math, but they're stimulating and there are Dover editions of some. you can get for around $5. Some people also like Edward Zaccaro's "Challenge Math" books. They're more curricular and a bit less challenging.

There are several good books oriented toward Mathcounts preparation. The AMC 8 is less demanding than Mathcounts, but the material is similar so any of these books would be good preparation. "Art of Problem Solving: Volume 1" is a classic. Jason Batterson's "Competition Math for Middle School" is also very good. I, of course, also like my middle school book.

There are also lots of good free online resources at this level. The AOPS website has a resources section where people have posted most old AMC problems. Their "Alcumus" is a nice online tool that asks questions and adapts to what kids know. They also have a set of "Mathcounts Mini" video lessons. My book is organized around old problems from "IMLEM". The IMLEM website (www.imlem.org) has a link to (free!) past contests which provide hundreds of problems with detailed solutions.

MIT is more STEM focused than most American colleges, but you still spend time on non-STEM subjects as well. It's more complex, but roughly the requirements for an MIT degree are: (1) Take 8 core STEM classes (2 math, 2 physics, 1 chemistry, 1 bio, 2 others); (2) Take 8 courses in humanities, arts, and social sciences; and (3) Take a number of courses (12-16) in your major area. The typical student ends up taking 35-40 courses in total. But for a math major, for example, this would probably be at most 50% math by the time you do the other requirements (and most students also do other things just because they're interested).

Thankyou very much for the information.

Looking at the contents for the "Elementary" book, I agree that there are topics not covered in my son's courses. And it looks like the "middle school" book also is more broad than the regular curriculum.

I notice the "Elementary" book has an associated Workbook and Answer Key. Is the same true for the "middle school" book?

I haven't ever gotten around to writing a workbook for the middle school book.

In part this is because the IMLEM website has 500 pages worth of past contest problems with detailed solutions arranged according to the chapter numbers in my book. It's a great resource -- probably better than anything I would have written. And it's completely free!

See http://www.imlem.org/meetdoc/index.htm

For example, to find problems on the first topic covered in my book (Meet 1 - Geometry - Angle Measures) you can click on any of the number 1's you see and then scroll down in the PDF file until to come to Category 2 - Geometry. There will be a sheet with three problems arranged in difficulty order: the first is (relatively) easy, the second is medium, and the third is (sometimes very) hard. Each page is followed by a sheet giving the answers with explanations.

I can speak to this, having graduated from MIT after transferring from UC Berkeley. With the AP courses that I had taken, I could have graduated from Berkeley taking one (upper-division) humanities course the whole time that I was there (which I did take during my one year there). When I transferred to MIT, because they did not give AP credit for many of my classes (and I had 5's on every test except French, where I had a 4), and because they had more humanities requirements, I had to take three or four more, and also more science distribution requirements than I would have had at Berkeley. That said, humanities courses at MIT do tend to have a more science-y feel to them, and they do tend to be taught with the assumption that this is a fun extra, not your core interest.

Glenn, thanks for the pm. I just saw it today and responded.

We got these books and DS7 is enjoying them. Even though he's finished (routine) K-5 Math courses, there are still several topics in the "Hard Math for Elementary School" book that are interesting and new for him.

Thanks for the notice about the new books, and thanks for the interesting comments in this thread. Several of the comments mention the issue of "problems" versus "exercises," and I should mention a FAQ about that point,

http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ProblemsversusExercises.php

which I first prepared for my local mathematics classes (I use the Art of Problem Solving textbook on Prealgebra

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/viewitem.php?item=prealgebra

in classes including third, fourth, and fifth graders) and is now hosted on the Epsilon Camp website. I'd be delighted to hear any commments any of you have about the FAQ link, and I have put the books kindly mentioned here into my Amazon wish list for likely future purchase for my own family, and maybe for my local classes too.