Question for Zack

useless · Long-term Member

RE: Question for Zack

useless · Long-term Member

Great job Sam!!! 3rd place!!! Haha! I can't believe I predicted that!

In fact, most of my predictions for math were close to right, they were just in the wrong order... >.<

In Computer Science, I did not expect Friendswood to do so freaking awesome! I especially didnt expect Gummelt to get less than 1st place. Wow! Anyway, good luck to the rest of the people that have yet to go!

- Zack -

fht · Long-term Member

Man, YOU ARE GOOD! Your NS prediction is amazingly accurate. As for placing, you got them all right, 3rd in math, and 5th in NS. Math's bittersweet; but I at least got some improvement compare to last year, which is basically what I was there for. You probably knew it already but here's the more detailed result in MA and NS:

MA: 4A

1. Justin Lin, 260 (DANG IT!), Jr

2. Steven Zhu, 252, ?

3. Me, 250 (lost by 2), 7/51, Jr

4. Chris, 240, Sr

5. Blain, 232, 7/48, Sr

6. Michael, 232, 10/52?, Jr

I forgot the top 5A score, I think it was 312.

Also, at 2A, Kevin Burnett, 280

NS: 4A

1. Sam, 310, 10/80, Sr

2. Chris, 302, 7/73, Sr

3. Bobby Grave, 277->295(corrected), 10/77 or 5/74?, Sr

4. Blain, 256, 11/71, Sr

5. Me, 255 (lost by 1), 10/69

6. Sarah Aelvoet, 220, Jr

5A:

1. Yuhong Liu, 337, 7/80

2. 285

3. 265

4. 250

5. 240

6. 224

2A: Kevin Burnett, 254

Notice how many people missed during their test. The math test as you will see is very tricky, both in the way Mr. White put the question, and the way he positioned them. On one page it was full of word problem, and that has caught many unguarded. And in NS, I was one of the few that was not that nervous (I thought I did not stand a chance), and the signs of all those genius freaked out is obvious. Blain complained of hypothermia and uncontrolable shaking, SamS reported that he started to make more mistakes after discovering that he had already made several of them (he turned out a LOT better than he thought), most people whined that "I don't feel like it's my test," and poor Chris Lam, he was not himself when he did the test. Look at just what being a senior can do to you! And look at all the 5A scores, no tight and tough competition this year. The majority of the people was not themselves when they did the test. It's either they were "defeated by themselves" or Mr. White's tests has become more and more technically and psychologically crafted. State tests is of State level because, OMG, it's STATE.

I can't figure out a lot of Asian winner's grade because THEY LOOK SO SMALL! The average height of the winners decreases as the number of A's increases. Especially in 5A math, they all look like a bunch of 6th graders, for goodness's sake! It looks impossible that they are seniors. But if they're only freshmen, where and how good were their seniors going to be? Maybe, they start school when they were 5, finish Elementary in 2 years, Middleschool in 1, and start high school when they're 9, so they, as seniors, are now like 12 or 13, which fits their physical description perfectly. Trying to imagine them going to prom just cracks me up. They all look like they are in band and maybe tennis, too. Nonetheless, THEY'VE GOT THE POWAH!

Best Wishes

-- Edited by fht at 20:43, 2006-05-06

-- Edited by fht at 20:45, 2006-05-06

useless · Long-term Member

Haha... Thats sooo true. (and btw, Steven Zhu is a jr)

I can't wait until the next UIL season. I'm already pumped, and this season just now ended. I especially can't wait for next year's Math competition. I'm going to go through every contest that White has put out so far and learn everything tested there inside out just as soon as the AP tests are over.

Five contests seems intimidating, but I think I can destroy next year!

Anyway... Congrats to you on all your contests! You placed twice, which is more than most people could even dream about. Great job man!

- Zack -

Date: May 8, 2006

Hey guys.. I'm Logan, I'm from Atlanta, and I'm trying to go to state next year. I'll be a junior next year. We're 3A, but we have a hard region, and I don't know if I'll have enough study time to get good at numbersense (I'm in band and golf too). I'm stuck around 200 right now on numbersense, and my math's getting better (130's-140's). anyone know about some resources I could use to get better (besides MathMagic, Texas Competitive Mathematics, and MathWorld)?

useless · Long-term Member

For math, I would suggest getting your sponsor to get your math team signed up for every math contest you can get into. The ones that I wouldnt want to miss include ACM (The American Math Contest, ie the precursor to AIME and USAMO), TMSCA, Mathleague.com's contest, the and annual contests at Rice and A&M. They all provide different elements that'll help your team in getting good enough to make it past region.

But... of course you do know this isnt enough. UIL math and the other contests I mentioned all involve many hours of self study so that you can gain a greater understanding of the problem solving techniques you guys gotta master in order to become competitive. If you want to get good at UIL math specifically, you're going to have to figure out what all is tested on the UIL math test. It turns out that more than 90% of the problems that appear on each test have been duplicated in some way or fashion in another test in the seasons from 2004-2006. As a team, I would suggest that you all sit down twice a week and go through 30 questions of a math test with your sponsor, discussing which problem solving technique will work fastest for different kinds of problems while in doing so, keeping a log or something of all the stuff you learn. After you finish doing that, its time to put these aquired skills to use in practice tests, which I hope your sponsor can provide you with.

And on your own, I would suggest that you take every UIL test from 2004-2006. And when you finish, cycle back through em again. This is probably the most important thing you can do on your own. It will increase your speed, accuracy, and score more than any amount of book reading. Doing that is the physical equivilant of working out, and the books are like muscle supplements that help you grow and understand it faster. If you dont work out, then the muscle supplements just become fat, as will your acquired knowledge if you dont practice! Be sure that you get into a routine, like take 20 questions of a test at lunch time or something. Just make sure you do something worthwhile everyday.

As far as Number Sense is concerned... you'll just get better with practice. You probably know all the tricks, basic fractions, decimals, percents, and stuff for NS already, so all that you can do to help yourself there is to keep up the hard work. If you're scoring in the 200's already, then you'll be in the 300's by next year if you do a test a day.

So yeah... I think thats about all I can tell ya without getting too redundant.

fht · Long-term Member

Hi, Logan,

Zack has provided basically the most detailed, systematic answer you can ever get. I tend to think it's better to have a plan like Zack's, but for me, as I said, I just do'em tests.

There was one thing Zack didn't mention --- Dr. Numsen. This guy is really good at making practice tests. From the beginning of Oct. to the last day before the State meet in May, he gives 4 practice tests with various difficulties every week. That would total almost 130 tests a year. I think you can also order test packets from previous years. They are the best practice test source I know of yet. There're also some other test sources like Ram Ramirez's but I have not tried them. Dr. Numsen also makes math tests, and even though his tests are a bit harder than UIL's, that just makes it better source. I learned a lot from doing those tests. You can try to get your coach to get funding to order, but since almost all public schools in Texas are plagued by the overemphasis on Athletics and underfunding in Academics, I wish you luck. It's worth a try and I guarantee you it's worth the money.

You are in 3A, so watch out for Medina Valley next year.

And in Georgia, do you have anything organized like UIL?

Best Wishes

useless · Long-term Member

Ah! Thats right, I forgot about Dr. Numsen. I really like his tests. They keep you good and practiced up even moreso than UIL, because his tests draw from a variety of different test questions, instead of sticking to the yearly theme like UIL does (You'll notice alot of of the questions that appear on Inv A of any given year will appear on all the others as well in pretty much the same point of the test). If your school (or yourself, for that matter) should want to invest in NS stuffs, have them spring for a copy of this years tests. It'll come on a CD for 60 bucks I think.

I havent actually purchased the math test packet from Dr. Numsen yet, but I have looked at the practice test he has posted on the site, and I must say that I like the way it looks.

I'm kinda excited today because I just now got my UIL Math sponsor (the good one that actually likes competing and stuff) to sign up for TMSCA and the AMC 12 test. I'm working on getting her to do mathleague.com as well, but I'm not sure if lightning will be able to strike 3 times. I'm just happy that we're finally gonna be in TMSCA. SWEEET. I can't wait for next year's season...

- Zack -

P.S. Sam - I think Atlanta is a 3A school in Tx. Their name sounds familiar from state...

fht · Long-term Member

Phbhaaa, I must have sounded so ignorant... I almost put "Welcome to Texas."

I was wondering too why would somebody from Atlanta, GA, know about this forum. I do remember there's an Atlanta HS from 3A now, I remember hearing that name in State somewhere.

Good luck on ChemAP tomorrow, Zack

Best Wishes

Date: May 10, 2006

Yeah, I'm from Texas. Our biggest competitor is Spring Hill. The dude that won state in 3A Numbersense is from there.

Thanks for ya'lls help. I appreciate it.