Introduction
In fifth grade, I started training for MATHCOUNTS®* and the American Mathematics Competitions, the premier middle school math contests. In order to prepare for these contests, I completed over ten math workbooks. From my personal experience, I found a lack of math competition resources for beginners. As a result, I was compelled to write this book for elementary and middle school students to bridge school curriculum math and competition math.
For the past three years, I have served as an assistant coach for my former middle school math team. From this coaching role, I learned that many beginning mathletes find competition problems to be too challenging or impossible for them to solve. Consequently, I structured this book to cover the basic concepts that mathletes need to master before approaching math competition problems.
This book covers 20 math topics in Number Theory, Algebra, Counting & Probability, and Geometry that are frequently tested in math competitions. Each chapter contains concepts with detailed explanations, examples with step-by-step solutions, and review problems to reinforce the students’ understanding. The most challenging problems are denoted with asterisks (*).
It is highly recommended that the students working through this book are proficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Furthermore, knowledge in pre-algebra would be helpful. Some chapters build on concepts from previous chapters, therefore, I suggest that students work from the beginning to end.
I hope this book will serve as a valuable resource for young ambitious students who desire to excel in math competitions. This book may also serve as an accessible tool for math team coaches who wish to teach their students advanced problem solving skills in preparation for elementary and middle school math competitions.
Jesse Doan
August 2016
*MATHCOUNTS® is a trademark registered by the MATHCOUNTS Foundation.
For the past three years, I have served as an assistant coach for my former middle school math team. From this coaching role, I learned that many beginning mathletes find competition problems to be too challenging or impossible for them to solve. Consequently, I structured this book to cover the basic concepts that mathletes need to master before approaching math competition problems.
This book covers 20 math topics in Number Theory, Algebra, Counting & Probability, and Geometry that are frequently tested in math competitions. Each chapter contains concepts with detailed explanations, examples with step-by-step solutions, and review problems to reinforce the students’ understanding. The most challenging problems are denoted with asterisks (*).
It is highly recommended that the students working through this book are proficient in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Furthermore, knowledge in pre-algebra would be helpful. Some chapters build on concepts from previous chapters, therefore, I suggest that students work from the beginning to end.
I hope this book will serve as a valuable resource for young ambitious students who desire to excel in math competitions. This book may also serve as an accessible tool for math team coaches who wish to teach their students advanced problem solving skills in preparation for elementary and middle school math competitions.
Jesse Doan
August 2016
*MATHCOUNTS® is a trademark registered by the MATHCOUNTS Foundation.