I have been pushing DS' school to start a MathCounts team and they have agreed. However, the school in turn nominated me to "coach" said team, along with a school math teacher. I was a good math student (25 years ago!) but now work as a professional in a decidedly non-math field. (And my DH is exclaiming with some asperity "How in the world do you have time for this?" which is a very legitimate question.)

Can anyone recommend practice materials or resources to start a team from level zero? I know AoPS has an online MathCounts prep course and I assume it's good like everything they do. Is this true? Any other, less expensive resources anyone can recommend?

Thanks for any help with this!

Searching "mathcounts" at Amazon brings up many books. One costing $12 that I own is

Hard Math For Middle School: Imlem Edition
by Glenn Ellison

(The Imlem is a different competition, but the author says many MathCounts topics are covered)

I don't know the AoPS MathCounts course; my son took the AMC 8 advanced prep course a couple of years ago and enjoyed it enough to want to take both AIME courses this summer.

There's a MathCounts Coaches' Forum on AoPS (go to 'Community'; then click on 'Middle School Math'); you might want to post your query there.

My son's teacher and coach use problems from various sources:

old MathCounts contests at all levels, obviously, accessible via the OPLET service or in book form in the online store at mathcounts.org, *if* you've got the money; assiduous Googling can also net you some for free

the various textbooks published by AoPS - Intro to Counting and Probability, Intro to Number Theory, etc.; again, not cheap

Jason Batterson's 'Competition Math for Middle School', available on Amazon for $25

old problems from other competitions; you might want to browse through (and Google from) this chart: http://homeschoolmathcontests.com/page.php?6

Hope this helps -- good luck!

As hip says, problems from math contests other than MathCounts can be useful. A Well-Trained Mind thread "middle school math contest problems" is at http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190273 .

It's been observed that students who do well in math contests also do well on the math SAT. SAT math prep books targeting good students, such as "Math SAT 800: How To Master the Toughest Problems" or "Dr. John Chung's SAT Math" may help with contest math, although there are topics on math contests never tested on the SAT.