Practice
Practice is the best way to improve your performance at math
contests and even in math class. Dedication and consistent practice
are necessary for maximum growth. Incorporate math practice into
your daily or weekly schedule and you'll be more prepared and
confident at competitions.
Strategy for Practice
There are three areas that you should aim to improve when you
practice competition mathematics. They are listed below along with
some helpful pointers.
- Knowledge - Read the entire problem. Think
about possible approaches to solving it. Then try to solve the
problem and check your answer. Do another similar problem and
try to reinforce the concept. If you get stuck, use the
internet, a teacher, or a friend to help you work through the
problem. Memorize any necessary formulas or steps. Find a
problem-solving method that makes sense to you.
- Accuracy - Once you
understand the related math concept, find a series of problems
that are similar to the one you learned (or make them up if
possible). Then, do a short number of problems and check your
answers. Go over those problems and see what you did wrong.
Finally, finish the rest of the problems and focus on being as
accurate as possible. Avoid rushing at this point.
- Speed - Now that you are
confident that you can solve the problem, find or have a friend
construct a practice test. Set a fast-paced, but reasonable time
limit, create an answer grid, and go! On scratch paper, write as
much as you need to as you work, but try not to write so much
that it slows you down. Once the time is up, review each problem
and how you solved it, and search for faster methods. Take the
test again, and see if you can complete the same problems at a
faster rate. Over time, you will start to recognize similar
problems on related tests and you will begin to develop faster
solution methods.
Past Competition Tests
Here is a list of practice materials for various tests, which
includes but is not limited to past tests and sample tests from a
variety of sources. It is recommended that members practice and
familiarize themselves with test formats from competitions that they
are attending prior to the competition date.
Select a competition from the list below and click Go. A new
window will take you to a page that lists past tests for the
selected competition. JavaScript will need to be enabled on your
browser in order to use this feature.
A Newport Math Club Video: (not viewable in all
browsers)