Just found out my eight grader made AIME !
I am so happy, being a mathmom

Congrats!!!

Congratulations!!

Yay!

<---Not one clue what AIME means. Since it seems to involve math i'm guessing I should, someone enlighten me!!

Congratulations!

Shari - it's the test for the Math Olympiad... you have to test on the AMC 10 or AMC 12 and score in the top something percent (1%?) and then you're invited to take the AIME.

Congrats to Ania's DS! woohoo!

That's awesome! YAy, Yay....Doing my impersonation of a cheerleader!

Congrats!

Thank you All !
I am really thrilled.
Currently math is the last thing on DS plate - it is Science Fair Central at our house! Anybody else HATES Sciene Fairs?

LOL -- I'm actually becoming quite fond of the science fair! But only because we're on round two (regional) and DS didn't have to make any changes to the project after the local fair. Whew!! I was pretty tired of it by the time he was done with his experiments.

Congratulations, Ania (and Ghost!)--how exciting! He's amazing.

I told you that we started a math club at the middle school & are doing competitions (I'm not convinced they're getting better at problem solving, but just having opportunities to compete). When things calm down with science fairs, let me know if you have suggestions for how to make it more valuable next year...resources. Teacher doesn't go over problems they get wrong (she often doesn't share the results because she doesn't want to make the kids who don't score well feel bad). They Never broadcast who are the top scorers.

Really?

Really?

How do you learn?

Congratulations Ania!

Congrats Ania to you and your DS!

Yes, sounds odd. Unhelpful. At least do the review part...come on!
I had teachers who would just go over the whole quiz or whatever so the kids would review it all and no individuals had to be singled out. (not math club, just regular class). I liked this because even on things I got right I would still sometimes learn things. Different strategies, quick tricks, etc.

And congrats to your 8th grader Ania!

Similar here. I actually proctor monthly Math Olympiad at our school for over 100 kids . It takes me three days, I have to walk 4th grade students (the youngest participants) from their building to the middle school building. So it really takes some time. Since I am already so involved, I suggested that I will do some kind of a poster for the hallway, at lest for the little ones, that would show their progress from month to month , something similar to the racing horses. No way, they did not want the students who score 0 or 1 on montly test to feel bad. Well, MAJORITY of them scores 0 or 1 on a monthly test, so what is all the sheltering about? Why do we discourage academic competition in american schools?

Its a fetish.

Next, we will be throwing salt over our shoulders.

Very busy week for DS.
State science fair is today - both my kids are participants, I am so glad it is almost over. Hate it with a passion!

AIME is tomorrow. DS will be writing alone in a counsellor office, I believe.It is a three hour exam. I do hope that he gets one question correct. I am really not expecting great results, we were all pretty excited when he did qualify based on his AMC 10 A score (and he scored even higher on AMC 10 B, proving that he has really arrived at the AIME doorstep).

Wednesday is state math contest, another 2.5 hour competition, a good hour drive away.

Thursday is Math Kangaroo, which I am a chairperson for.

Friday is day off, but DS will have to work on his history fair project.

Saturday is ARML Local.

I do not think DS will hate math by Sunday as he is really doing a lot of problemsolving daily, or almost daily, but he will be exausted from the sheer stress of it all.

Did I mention that our school has a book fair all this week, of which I am a co-chair, and expected to be there MOST of the time?

Gosh, Ania, could you be any more lazy?!

So, seriously, will you manage to find time to sleep and eat this week? I'm amazed!

Go, Ania, go!!!

Good luck!

OK, here are Science Fair results for our family:
DD 6th grade - Plague (like 4th place) in mathematics on the state level. Extatic!
DS 8th grade level - 1st place in chemistry and another monetary award from chemical society.State level. Yay! I finally do not have meat going smelly in my basement!
I absolutely hate science fairs. I am SO glad it is over!!!!

Today was AIME, tomorrow is State Math Contest for DS.

I ate, I run (!) and now I am watching Hard Problems for inspiration.

Yay! Awesome results!!

Woohoo!! Congratulations to both of them! And yay for no smelly meat in the basement! We only had sticky shards of smashed candy all over the kitchen... and I have a picture of DS scrubbing the floor....

^^Kar - that picture should be a part of his display board!

LOL!! I just checked - it's not on the board, so it must be in the book (you know... the book of "things that wouldn't fit on the board... LOL). Our state science fair is coming up too -- it's his first time going!

WOW COngrats Ania to you and your boys!!!!!! ANd good luck on the rest of the week.

This belong to the brag thread, but I will continue here...

He scored two on the AIME, making a stupid mistake (like many others I am hearing/reading) on question 1. He is not happy, was hoping for 4, I actually think he did well for not practicicng AIME.

Here is the brag though. Yesterday the letter came to school. Adressed to him. It was an invitation to the State Capitol for a banquet hosted by the Governor in honor of high scorers on AMC.
Ghost is the highest scorer on 10A in 8th grade and the highest scoreer in the state overall on 10B.
We are absolutely shocked at this Governor thing, had no idea anything like this is part of the award!
Gotta go now, but will be back to post some more later

CONGRATS TO YOUR DS!!

CONGRATS!!!! Now I have to look up what AIME means!

AIME stands for American Invitational Math Exam.
You start with AMC 8 when you are an 8th grader or below. If you are good or older than 8th grade, you write AMC 10 or /and AMC 12. Anybody can write those, you just need to register in time and pay. If your scores are in top 1% of all those writing AMC 10 or top 5% of those writing AMC 12, you are INVITED to take the AIME. Costs stop at this point. Your school gets the exam that is administered over a three hour periods. The highest scoring kids (generally around 500 or so from the entire USA) are then invited to write USAMO (United States of America Math Olympiad). The top scorers go onto special summer program and then six of them are selected to represent the USA in the International Math Olympiad (IMO).
Hope S will one day make USAMO!

Congratulations, Ania! Wow, a banquet with Governor!

Congratulations to you and Ghost!!

WOW!!! Congratulations!

Congratulations to Ghost and his parents!

CONGRATS Ghost!

How cool is that?! Congrats to ghost!

Whoopee! That's just too cool!

Way, way cool!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you all !
I feel like I am in the spotlight.

This is a truly unexpected honor, I am sure Ghost thinks similarly. He is truly a very busy boy (looks like man but is still a boy). Right now he is at the Boy Scout meeting - he recently became the troop leader, or whatever it is called, and is taking his position very seriously. All this week he has been working on a documentary for a History Fair (see, this one I do not hate since there is no way he can ask me for help - I know NOTHING about the process )
He is truly a hard working individual and I do think he deserves the honor, but I am biased, I am his mom

OMG!!! That is crazy. Top 6 WOW imgagine how smart those kids are!!

Ania... You're supposed to be biased!! Congrats to Ghost, that is so cool!!

For information about AIME, the Art of Problem Solving Wiki is useful. You're getting into pretty serious territory taking AIME in 8th grade. If you look at their general statistics for 2008, you'll see that 332 8th graders participated. Their scores varied from 0 to 12 out of 15.

They do two AIME exams each year. My DS12 will be taking the second one next week. I'm hoping he does well enough to get to USAMO, but that will surprise me.

Regards,
Jon

How wonderful, Ania & Ghost! So exciting!

I wrote about AIME:They have 2009 statistics up now. As I expected, my DS12 did well (he got 5), but not well enough to get invited to USAMO. Maybe next year if math competitions are still interesting....

Regards,
Jon