How To Prepare for AMC 10: BUDGET VERSION

how's it going so uh i really wanted to do another video follow up on the video i made called how to prepare for the amc 10. and the purpose of this one is like many of you i did not grow up with very much money i was lower middle class i didn't even own my first car until i was 21 years old and i bought it myself there was no assistance from family or anything like that so i've never had an hour of private tutor in my life of any kind and so i wanted to speak to those kinds of people that maybe don't have access to the financial resources that some other students might have and to begin with i just want to talk a little bit about uh the mindset that you have to approach that situation with you kind of have two options you can choose to be jaded and you can be upset at the hand that life has dealt you you can look with envy at people who have access to more resources than you or you can figure it out and what i mean by that is uh i call it the deserted island principle in problem solving and actually you can apply this to your situation as well the deserted island principle works like this if your plane crashes right or uh your boat you know capsizes and you find yourself on a deserted island like some of the books that you may have read as a child or maybe you still are a child uh and you might have read books like that or seen movies like that shipwrecked or something like that and you find yourself on this deserted island right then you probably don't know how to spear fish right you probably have not dug up roots of plants to eat them uh you've probably not foraged for berries in the woods for survival maybe you've never started a fire okay so what do you do then do you just lay down on the beach and write sos and hope a plane or a helicopter flies by not a very good plan right if you want to live you probably should try to do stuff to accomplish those things that you don't know how to do and you can't be like well no one taught me it doesn't matter it doesn't matter go get a stick sharpen it on some rocks and try to get that fish go forage for berries bang two rocks together over some tinder some leaves some pine needles something like that and try to make that fire so that you can survive and that's the mindset that you have to have problem solving because you cannot hang your hat on oh i didn't learn this technique too bad find a way around it okay same thing with the preparation how it goes it doesn't matter that they have more resources than you right you can you can either have one of two paths envy frustration and sadness and victimizing yourself and and recognizing that okay not everybody gets the silver spoon in their mouth it is what it is you can sit back and say well i didn't have the same opportunities that they had that's fine you can do that you're right you're right they had a they had an easier path to success than you did or you can survive with the deserted island principle and so same kind of mindset here okay so let's get to it we've got i wanted to make this again for people who don't have a lot of funds to spend so i call it the budget version i'm not going to go into all the things i went through in the original video watch that one if you want to see the discussion about aops books but for the middle school checklist uh there is all of alchemists right that's free you can do alchemists on your own there's nothing holding you back i guess you do need a computer right you'll need access to one i think your public library has one if you don't have a personal computer at your house i understand no judgment do all amc 8 from the past 20 years that's free right you can go find them if you don't have access to that computer you can probably print at the library as well you might have an ipad for school now because we're in the middle of covid they might have given you one or again you know ask a teacher at school in the math department to help you acquire these if you don't have access to a computer you can register for and spend time on the aops forums that's free make an account talk on there spend a couple hours a week looking at what people talk about i also if you're going to spend time on those forums i do recommend you use the search feature the search feature is going to allow you to find the topics that you're looking for without having to you know annoy the regulars there with questions that have already been answered so i would recommend lurking right before you participate with your questions lyr can read what other people post read how they respond you know and comment you know when you're ready okay beast academy is going to cost money if you don't have it that's rough it starts to from grades two to five probably your parents or if you are a parent watching this video that's where you wanna start your child off if they're in second grade um it's a great resource for preparation for this style of thinking for the win to be honest i don't know much about for the win i never used it but i've heard kids say good things about it it's an aops resource as well if you even go on the aops website and you look for resources there's all kinds of resources they list on there that most of them are free uh the aops books again i'm not going to go into all of them in this video they do cost money um they're typically i think for the book and the solution between 40 and 60 or so and i understand that funds might be tight and i've seen some people ask me even in the comments can you link a pdf of these books and i kind of have a problem with doing that and and the reason is is if you read the intro to some of these books that you know rutcheck wrote for instance he writes you know thank you to vanessa my desert flower for your support things like that he refers to her lovingly and it's really really obvious that there was an immense struggle to get this company created they probably worked with no pay for years to create this material maybe they had a sponsor i don't know the background and the details i do know it didn't just get handed to him right he had to make immense sacrifice his wife had to make immense sacrifice in order to produce what has made our lives today in the math community the competition math community greatly enhanced no company in the entire us even maa i i really love them as well has done more to cultivate the culture of competition math and the beauty really of math and the creative problem solving than aops when you share that pdf you're stealing from them you're stealing from you're looking at their sacrifice that they made in whatever years they made it 0405 whatever it was i don't know the exact history and you're saying ah that's great and all but i can't afford it and because i can't afford it i justify stealing the content and that's what it is it's theft now you might feel like yeah but i i can't afford it and those kids have it and if i don't have it i can't compete okay i get it i get it i understand it's not fair and life is not fair i totally understand those feelings and in fact it might hurt a little bit to know that that's that's the reality that you're up against and again you can either give up or or you can find a way around it you can find a way to succeed despite despite the hand that you were dealt and maybe you don't have a good hand maybe you've got two seven off suit maybe you can play that hand to a win right and so uh i i don't really support the handout of pdfs here's what i would do if you really really can't afford it even in my life i got two gifts a year one for my birthday and one for christmas why not ask for the book that you want why don't you make ask family right five dollars from grandma five dollars from uncle five dollars from cousin you add that all up just say what you want it for people are gonna support you adults are gonna support you your math teacher at school might even support you if you come humbly and you you are grateful and you're genuine and you ask for that help maybe they will do it maybe the school teacher will buy the book for the school that you can check out i don't know i don't really know what will happen and neither do you until you try right when i was a kid there was no jobs in my city there was no street lights there was no sidewalks we lived out in the country right so there weren't many jobs around that you could go do i pulled weeds in like a hundred yard path and each row of trees that i pulled those weeds in i was given 50 cents a week right you can struggle it's okay to struggle it actually builds character it'll make you a better person in the long run ask your parents what you can do to earn 50 cents a week or a dollar a week right maybe more than that maybe they can give you three dollars a week most parents uh they're gonna want to support you and again i don't wanna some people didn't have the same experience you know maybe you don't have two parents in your home growing up i didn't right i know what that's like i understand okay all of those things that's the reality of human life right and so again lay down and take it or get up and fight okay get up and don't accept the path that you've been told you're gonna be on you go and fight okay and so i just don't support this one last thing you might do email aops they have an email write them an email and tell them your situation maybe you can get them to give you a discount on their books maybe i am not guaranteeing anything i do not know their policies i do know they're a very great company right and so they're probably going to be willing to help in some way or give you advice as well about how you can go about getting it maybe there's used books maybe someone at your high school that you've befriended on the math community is graduating and they no longer feel they need those books ask them can i buy those from you used half price something like that right there's all kinds of things you can do besides stealing and i just i can't support it and i'm not going to share the pdfs and my links or anything like that if aops gives approval and they will say you can use their pdf then go ahead you've gotten their permission that's what you're supposed to do right so uh that's just my feeling on that if you have done that and you've used the pdf honestly i don't really judge you this is about my own personal integrity for myself and what i expect of me if you've done that and you've used it okay that was the decision that you made one thing you might consider down the road is when you get ahead in life you've graduated college and you start making money you know if you go to college uh then give back buy their books in the future for your kids do something to show them the respect of the sacrifices that them and their team made to give you this gift of creative problem solving at a level you just couldn't find in the country before that so that's my thoughts on that i don't want to say anymore i'm not shaming anyone please don't feel ashamed i've done many stupid things in my life i am human too and so it's okay make better decisions going forward that's what i advocate additional free resources your local math circle if you live near a big city many colleges have a math circle cal state fullerton has one for instance uc irvine has a math circle for instance if you contact them and ask are there any math circles in the area do a google search or some kind of duckduckgo search whatever you want to use for your search engine do that your school might have a math club what if they don't why don't you start one do you know how well colleges look on somebody who starts a math club you become the president of that club why don't you do something about your situation don't accept the hand you're dealt don't excel there's no math club at my school so i can't succeed get over it man get over that create the math club that will actually enhance your resume for college applications you did something to better the world and not just help yourself you're helping other people go for it okay youtube channels i put mine on here of course hey subscribe down below it's a good channel in my opinion but obviously i'm biased uh the aops channel great resource he's done about the last five problems from amc 10 and 12 on both tests from about 2014 i think they have some other videos on there as well shout out to osmond nall he's going to handle a lot of upper level content amy and high level amc 12 and he even does other math competitions as well he's honestly i'm not afraid i'm not ashamed to say it he's better than me the guy is talented right he he has more ability than i do at this stage in his life great resource use it it doesn't mean that i'm not valuable just because he's doing great you can be that way too with your friends if one of them is doing better than you don't worry don't be jealous be proud of them it's cool that they're getting that kind of success right walt s has been around for a lot longer than me very nice guy it seems like he's got a youtube channel as well a great teacher another one that i put these are in my featured channels list osmond and stem for all i don't know who runs the stem for all channel i don't know her name but she seems nice she primarily does a lot of other stuff math kangaroo is one of the ones that she focuses on a lot it's still a great resource check it out right that's free you just watch videos maybe you have to watch an advertisement oh no get over it man okay discord servers i didn't include this in the last video because i didn't even know about them at the time so discord servers uh you've got several of them on there they have different resources there a lot of them have a problem of the day they include lecture videos on there from different channels that they feature um there's advice and discussion maybe it's an upgraded level from what you'll find at aops depending on what you like um there's more links to free resources that they provide if you ask them for help they will help you people will help you right don't just say i don't have the money ask people for help there's no shame in that right okay um the ones i want to give a shout out to especially this one is called math club you can contact him it's a private discord server you have to have an invite his name on aops is kong min k-h-o-n-g-m-i-n-h-05 send him a pm on aops and ask for an invite to his discord server the kid is really helpful right very much so i don't know how to pronounce his name his vietnamese name but he goes by henry you can reach out to him and ask him good good person right cncm i don't know a lot about cncm i know it used to stand for central north carolina mathematics or something like that and now it's cyclic something i can't think of the exact name but they go by the acronym cncm they're having a math competition coming up i think on the 15th i don't 100 know i haven't heard back from them yet on what they're doing with that it's a user produced competition they have quite a few people on their discord server again full of people willing to help you if you ask for it okay next up continued there's other competitions besides amc you should do them they're not going to all help directly with the amc they will make you a better mathematician right they will give you more skills one you can do in middle school up until eighth grade is math counts it's a great one that you can do if your school offers it if it doesn't start the math club ask your math teacher how to get a math counts team going lead don't wait for someone else you lead you step up okay next one hmt um this is the harvard mit mathematics tournament i believe don't know a lot about it never taken it myself haven't done any problems from it here every problem that you do is going to help mandelbrot don't know a lot about it check it out math kangaroo to be honest i'm not a huge fan of all the math kangaroo problems uh they have them for all grades one through twelve it's still worth it right they have like i think 30 questions they're separated by three point four point and five point questions i would say about half the questions are awesome and the other half [Music] you know it's okay it's an international con competition it's worth doing right it's worth doing check it out again you can learn more about it here if you comment on that channel i'm sure that this channel operator will help you out in learning more about it look up math kangaroo as well the usa math talent search i think this is a take-home test check it out as well there's a bunch of mock tests look at the mocks that are available one that i know one primarily is called the cmc the christmas math competition if you search on google aops or on aops forums rather for mock tests you will find a link to the page that has it or search on google okay there's various handouts that the community has created they're free they connect you to all the problem types of one type like all triangle problems all probability problems right um they're free to use math divulged i don't know much about this in fact henry's the one that told me about it when i asked him about it a little bit earlier today i went and checked out their page they seemed very well qualified i mean one of the people on the first bio that i read has qualified for usa jmo six years in a row i mean extremely smart people they have a youtube channel they probably have resources there lots of people want to help you the question is do you want to help yourself and that's where we come here here's you you are probably the most important free resource that you have right uh one thing that you can do especially well how did i get so good i taught other people and i'm not even great okay i'm good but there's people better i've already pointed some out right there's a lot better evan chen i i don't i'm not even in the same stadium with the guy okay richard rutchek same thing right okay but how did they how did i get good i predict probably how they also got good besides solving lots of problems they taught someone else when you teach someone else it forces you to organize the information in such a way that you see linearly through the solution path a lot better and you'll notice things that you never noticed when you were solving when you're forced to tell someone else how to go about it okay find a cousin find a younger sibling find a neighbor anyone you can to tutor even if you have to do it for free oh no did you volunteer heaven forbid volunteering is great right look for ways to help out others it might just improve you in the process learn how to study effectively one of the things i show also you can watch my video called how to study for the amc eight actually it is and other tests um check that video out it's just a method it's not the only method but it's the starting point if you don't know what you're doing and you're not you know looking at your notes that you took from past tests then maybe you're not remembering all the things that you learned last year or six months earlier this year and so on and so forth taking good notes and studying well is an essential part of your journey over here i put priorities um i want to say that taking the amc tens from the year 2000 and the amc 12s afterward from the year 2000 forward all of those tests are valuable why because a lot of the modern questions are built off fundamental concepts taught in those tests are they easier it doesn't matter get the fundamental concepts down they love to take older ideas change them slightly put it in 2019 or 2020 tests the people who have done these are going to recognize those things and it'll give them a starting point that they might branch off of to find the new solution path on the more difficult questions do not skip the old tests the most important aops book for all of amc 10 prep is volume 1. if you can get that one above all else above all the other aops books it has great coverage of about 8 to 14 questions again watch my regular how to prepare video to see you know the approximate help of each aops book and which one you should do at which grade level in the future i'll probably make specially designed plans per grade level like if you're sixth grade seventh grade and so on more on that later um community engagement the discord servers the aops forums your math club your local math circle write get involved about two hours a week if you can avoid it don't talk the nonsense conversations don't engage in them it's great sometimes but don't be too distracted about talking about things that you know are frivolous focus on the content and the learning and yes okay it's good to have some social engagement too but try to control it okay so you can focus on the prize the goal right um mindset be determined right again don't accept the hand you were dealt do not say oh you know like tiger woods has been golfing since he was five and that's why he became dominant you may be starting in eighth grade in competition math and that might feel too late to the kids who started in fourth grade third grade or beast academy it does not matter there are still people at the top of their game in all fields that got a late start you can be one of them or you can just give up and walk away up to you okay um lastly as many problems as you can evan chen mentions it he says there's no right training and that's pretty much true but you probably should be solving thousands upon thousands of problems from various competitions whatever you can get your hands on be dedicated and focused to it the best time for this is middle school because you have more free time but after you get out of middle school it's still not too late you can still grow in high school it'll make you a better problem solver a better creative thinker again if you want to know why do competition math at all watch that video maybe i'll link it in the description or something like that you can just find it on my channel if you want there are still benefits to attempting to improve yourself right creative problem solving doesn't end in competition math you'll carry that forward to the workplace and the people who can creatively solve problems for companies tend to make a lot more money i hope this video was helpful i'll see you guys around see you in the next video

Channel: TheBeautyofMath

Views: 5,237

Keywords: AMC10, AMC12, AIME, Competition Math, AOPS, MathCounts, Math, Mathematics, AMC 10, AMC 12, AMC 8, Math Kangaroo

Id: e_dA6XH5lVM

Length: 23min 24sec (1404 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020