I am looking into signing up one or two of my rising 4th graders for the AMC8 test in November. Our school doesn't participate but a couple of the local colleges provide testing accomondations for kids whose schools do not participate.

Anyone whose kids participated as elementary students care to share their experiences? How much preparation beyond familiarity with the sample questions at the AMC site?

Have you checked if the middle school in your school district participates? My son took it as a 4th-grader and earned a place on the achievement roll for high scores in grade 6 and below. He found it interesting and will participate again this fall. Past AMC 8 exams are at https://sites.google.com/site/mathjunk/amc8 .

Ds13 participated from 5th through 8th and really enjoyed it, as a way to deepen his understanding of his favorite subject, math, and as a way to bond with other 'nerds' (their word). From my perspective it was extremely beneficial for him as it motivated him to work on getting over his fear of failure, and gave him what seems to me (a non-math person) a good grounding in discrete math topics.

Preparation: ds's school has a math club, the junior (4th-5th) version of which met once a week for an hour after school. The teacher/coach also made old AMC and MathCounts exams and practice MathCounts materials available to anyone who asked for them. In 5th ds probably spent a couple of hours a week on problem-solving work at home in addition to attending the club meetings. I don't remember how he did back then, but I know he feels now that the years of work are really paying off - this spring he qualified for AIME as a 12-year-old 8th grader.

Hope this helps -

Thanks. Actually, I didn't check with the middle schools because DS/DD would be more likely to feel out of place there than at the colleges where presumably they would encounter more elemntary aged-kids.

Past AMC 8 exams can also be found or linked from the AMC 8 site. I wonder if those exams are the same as the ones at the google site.

That was helpful - thanks. Congratulations on DS qualifying for the AIME. The prep time doesn't seem too onerous although DS and definitely DD would be unlikely to willingly spend more than an hour a week. Your "nerd" comment has me hesitating about also signing up DD, who would be a fish out of water. She's more like a petite version of "Legally Blonde in Training".

Thanks. Ds didn't seem to mind the prep time at any stage - gradually increasing it in proportion to his increasing desire to compete worked well.

I wouldn't assume every group of 'mathletes' would necessarily qualify as 'nerds', so don't let my comment make you hesitate! Check out the available groups in your area - if you can meet or at least eyeball the kids, maybe you can get a feel for how welcoming they'd be.

And hey, it sounds to me as if the world of middle-school math competitions could use more girls (not to stray into the gender topic - that's another thread!): one of ds's best 'nerd' friends, a girl, returned from MathCounts Nats in May reporting that out of the 224 students competing, fewer than 50 were girls.

My son participated last year as a 3rd grader, but he didn't prepare. He LOVED taking the test, though. He called it "epic" and filled with "juicy math." He is taking it again this year just for the fun of a challenging test.

That's an excellent point. I am not looking for another high score for DS, but just want him to have the exposure as well as perhaps for him to see other kids near his age with a passion for math.

The funny thing is that I would never consider signing up DD if I were not signing up DS.

Whether it's genetics or socialization, it does become clear that there is a gender divide for math by 3rd grade.

To a somewhat lesser extent, I see it in science as well. At the District science fair this past year, I thought DD stood out a bit as well. Although I have to say that in the long run, it actually may be an advantage to be a girly girl in the STEM world.

I love his descriptions! How much math had he covered (either formally or informally) at that point?

For a 4th-grader a good introduction to contest math may be problems from the Continental Math League, from a book such as

Math Contests-Grades 4, 5 & 6: School Years: 1979-80 through 1985-86 (Volume 1) by Steven R. Conrad and Daniel Flegler (2003)

available for about $5 from Amazon used, including shipping. There are other books in the series. Each has book has several multiple choice contests, with answer keys and solutions.

Also good are the "Math Olympiad Contest Problems" books related to MOEMS.