Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions NorCal:No Math Kangaroo centers open to everyone?

My child would love to participate in the Math Kangaroo (he is 6 years old). I looked up all the test centers in Northern California and there is not a single center that is open to everyone. I might have to drive to So Cal for my son to be able to participate - and that too is dubious because I am sure most of them will turn away participants who do not belong to their school or math club when I call to confirm. Is there anyone here who knows of a center that welcomes participants locally?

The list has just come out.
http://www.mathkangaroo.org/mk/centers.html

My guess is that the list will grow (I'm not sure though) since they had more centers in previous years. Maybe some centers will sign up later, or maybe the list isn't up to date or complete.

Thanks, 22B. I was looking to register early because I was told that last year all the centers were full later on. I will keep checking for new local centers to open up while evaluating if it is worth my family's time to drive down to So Cal for this competition.

I just looked at that list again
http://www.mathkangaroo.org/mk/centers.html

It looks like they only have centers in 32 states so far, even though there were competitors in 37 states last time.
http://www.mathkangaroo.org/mk/state_directors.html

This makes me think more centers will open up (but I could be wrong).

You have brought up the dilemma that while you wait for new centers to open up, other centers could fill up. I'm going to wait a while.

You could see if someone near you (a school?) would be willing to host a center.
http://www.mathkangaroo.org/mk/start_new_center.html

You could just start a new center. See if you can find a room at the local library. There's instructions on the website that explain how to register a new center.

I have been checking the MK center lists from last weekend onwards because my local PS (which my son does not attend) will host the event - but only for its own students. Same is the case for 4 other schools locally that hose "private" testing centers. They suggested that I register with other centers that are open to the public - which in itself brings another dilemma - because the people volunteering to run these centers which are open to the public do so on their own time, so might want first preference for their friends and family - which is the reason why they are already FULL - and some of them are math tutoring centers which might try to attract new clientele by reserving some seats for their new students. I did not know that entering a simple competition for a competition loving child was so complicated!
I just noticed a center in Oregon with 470 openings available right now - hmmm... another possibility to consider.

thanks for pointing this out.
I have thought of this possibility too - just not sure how much work and time is involved in it.

How can you tell the number of openings?

If I clicked on the link to the center, it opens up a page with the # of currently available openings - for e.g.:
https://www.mathkangaroo.org/MathKangaroo/LocationDetails.jsp?locationID=265
Otherwise, if you try to add the center to your child's name, a message shows how many openings were there originally and how many have currently been filled.

Okay, I see. You have to log in to get to that part.