Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Do you think this indicates math talent?

I think that regardless of your DD's level of "math talent," you should still encourage her to presevere with math throughout middle and high school. Tell her that at a minimum, she should not close any doors. DD13, who will be entering high school in the fall and recently had to do a lot of soul-searching in selecting, applying to, and testing for magnet programs with an eye to college options further down the line, finally gets it. She is actually taking the AMC10 today without me twisting her arm. Don't get me wrong, she has not prepared beyond trying one of last year's test and may at most reach the Achievement Roll cut-off but that is not the point.

As for your DD, part of math talent is math interest and the fact that she voluntarily took time to factor an important algebraic identity says a lot. It doesn't really matter rather this identity is Introduced/memorized in Algebra I or Algebra II, she is ahead of the game either way.

Updating this with more head-scratching on DD and math. She recently bombed a unit test in Algebra and says she wants to self-demote a track in math upon reaching high school (this is something she can do without much embarrassment; basically, she would take Geometry twice, in 8th and again in 9th, but with a different teacher and at a different school). At the same time, she recently let it drop that she just missed the cut off for the school math team. (They select 4 students, based on MathCounts test results. I had assumed she had recently started going to MathCounts only because a BFF of hers goes.)

I had been inclined to agree with the change in tracks because she is a high-stress young critter, and her intended high school is very challenging. My concern is that I don't want her to turn herself away from a science and math track too young due to "low-confidence girl" issues. She is VERY, VERY good at science, but not passionate about it. Unfortunately, she is not passionate about school, period, right now, though fortunately music and writing are igniting her.

Have you spent much time working on study skills and exams skills with your DD? Maybe it's not her maths that's letting her down in her maths exams, but her time management, not showing working, mis reading questions, going too fast and making silly mistakes, not going back to check her working, etc., etc.

ultramarina, this is undoubtedly a really complex situation with a whole lotta stuff going on. What really jumps out at me, though, is:

(a) she says she's not good enough for the highest math track

vs.

(b) she was in the top 5 MathCounts scores.

Whatever is going on, it feels like inability to handle the class is more excuse than issue. Random possibilities might include...lack of confidence. perfectionism. underlying hidden learning issue. social issues and self-image, in general and/ or around the kinds of kids in higher level math. It's hard to tell if this is normal teen angst, or at least typical gifted issues, or something a little more hidden. But from what you'e said, she likes thinking about math. She's very good at it. And she's avoiding it. What is she actually avoiding?

Would some high profile examples of girls/women in math and science help her....the girl from wonder years wrote a book (not sure how good it is) and the girl from blossom and Big Bang theory has videos (vlog?).

Another possibility is a poor teacher fit. One of my DD's friends (who is probably DYS material but has not been tested) is currently failing algebra because of a teacher who does not give partial credit for careless errors in the middle of a problem. You are right or you are wrong, and if you are wrong, it doesn't matter whether you don't understand the algorithm or you had a brain fart and said that 5x7=45 during the last step.

Wow. I would fail too.

That is unusual. Does she give full credit for correct answers with no work shown?

No as far as I know, but of course this is all hearsay from her and her mom.

She's big on careless errors, for sure. She tries to squeeze all her work in tiny spaces, which makes me berzerk. She loses a lot of points for arithmetic errors, misread numbers, missing negatives, missing graph labels (this year's teacher dings them every time they don't label x and y axes!), not showing work, etc. It is very rare that she loses points for not getting a concept. If I ask my DH to work with her, he says, "She understands this." And yet.

She is also slow. She reports that this is a problem just in math.

Grades are all over the map, btw. She will get a 98 and then a 75.