Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Mathematics competitions for individuals.

As I said, there's the Math League. There is also MOEMS (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools) which I would rank third under the AMC and MATHCOUNTS, but you are looking for individual competitions and MOEMS only takes teams (though homeschool and institute teams can compete as well as school teams). If you look at Rusczyk's Problem Solving books; these are the competitions he pulls problems from. He also includes 24 cards, and you may find some local 24 contests that are open to individuals. The top four contests open to students in 8th grade and below, in my opinion, are the AMC 8, MATHCOUNTS, MOEMS, and the Math League. After those, you should choose any competition you think your child would enjoy or excel at, keeping in mind most won't challenge students who are really strong in mathematics.

Math homework typically has many problems based on the same concept. Math competitions can be viewed sources of non-routine problems, even if you do not officially participate. Sometimes my middle child wants math problems, so I can have him do a Continental Math League contest from the book "Math Contests, Grades 4, 5 & 6, Vol. 5" by Steven R. Conrad and Daniel Flegler. There are other books in this series, and they cost less than $10.

I posted this comment in another thread
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted..../all/What_elite_math_camps_are_ther.html
but it's actually closer to this thread topic, so I'll also paste it here.


This sounds right. It is certainly possible to do very well in competitions without acceleration or preparation. (I know.) The good competitions may have a range of problems from not so hard to extremely difficult, but intentionally designed so that advanced knowledge typically can't help, though it may help to know some things not emphasized in school. There are some relevant articles here.
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=calculustrap
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=discretemath
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=pc_competitions

That said, strong maths students should not be held back from acceleration, and acceleration is much easier these days with the internet.