Competition Math for Middle School

I'm doing Mathcounts in my school, and wanted some resources to help me perform better in the chapter and state competitions. I was on and online course at artofproblemsolving.com for advanced Mathcounts/AMC 8, and in the previous years I had taken a course on Johns Hopkins CTY. I bought this book on Artofproblemsolving.com because it was meant for contest "mathletes" like me. Instantly, I focused areas on my weak sections of math, like probability/counting, and geometry. I reviewed the probability section for a few days and in what seems like an instant, it became my best subject. This book teaches the reader through the concepts first, with a few worked examples, then lets you do it on your own. The problems are challenging, fun, and serve as an excellent resource for sharpening skills on weak areas. Now, I'm working on the geometry section. Also, this book shows slick methods for hard problems, like "How many different rectangles can be formed on an 8x8 chessboard?" Overall, I think this is an excellent resource for one who is serious about competition math and wants to excel in competitions like mathcounts. A last thing I would recommend is that people who want to buy this book is that they should be somewhat confident that they will proceed to state mathcounts(or at least, have some experience). In general, I thought this was an amazing book!!

This is my first year coaching math, and this book really helped give me a framework.

This is a very helpful book for middle school students who want to improve their math skills and challenge themselves. The problems are well designed, clear, and thought-provoking. It is a great resource for building problem-solving ability and preparing for math competitions. Highly recommend it for students who enjoy math and want extra practice.

I got this for my 7th grade son who wants to do better at math count next year. I wondered how all these kids were so smart, ...well they were not only smart, but they had studied these types of books so that they knew how to do all these smart problems. Although they have done a good job of compiling it to provide broad spectrum of math problems, it would be quite difficult for a kids to study on their own as their explanation is not easily understood by kids alone. I had to explain some of the explanation on the book. Overall, I rate it highly for it's concise compilation of really neat problems and diversity of topics covered. Thanks for a great resource!

I definitely recommend this book to middle-schoolers aiming for scoring high in competitive math exams. I was able to prep my son (who was very good in grade school, but not accustomed to high standards of competition math) and he is doing phenomenally well now. I used Batterson's book to gradually introduce tough problems in number theory, alegbra , probability etc, and when this book is studied with the art-of-problem-solving (+ vol1, vol2) and Israel Gelfland's alegebra + trignometry + Kieslev's geometry, you have a kid who can really excel in math. My son is an all-rounder (sports and leadership wise) and growing up in NJ we are surrounded with some amazing talent, but now I got him excel in competition math too. This book's section on counting and probability is unbelievably good especially the way he tackles the weird counting questions with "stickes and stones".. well done!

Unlike Prealgebra: The Art of Problem Solving, Competition Math for Middle School includes all the solutions to the exercises in an appendix at the end. This makes checking out the answers easier -- and also cheaper -- since the student doesn't have to spend an additional amount to obtain the solutions manual. Besides that, the book is well-written and flows naturally from one math topic to another. The author states in his introduction that the student should attempt to solve the problems first, but to always check out the solutions. He says," A lot of the teaching in this text occurs within the solutions. In reading through a solution, you may find a different method than the one you used to solve a problem...." This is the first book written by the author, Jason Batterson. I highly recommend Competition Math for Middle School to any parent of a bright Middle School student. Well done, Mr. Batterson!

An amazing book! I just want to say thank you to the author for putting together such an inspired work. This thing is absolutely packed with problems, solutions, tips. It's ideal for teachers of advanced students and advanced students themselves. Engaging, simple, well-organized. I appreciate the clear and efficient explanations. This is not the book to buy a child struggling with certain concepts. This thing is a tour de force of competition math. Sorry I cannot do it justice with words. I am very impressed!

Content is good. I learned quite a bit. But the book is a bit small and hard to hold to the page on table. The answer is tricky to find, takes me a while to figure it out and I think its not necessary to display them in such an overthoughtful way.

If it takes someone 5 min to complete a page of work on a regular math book, it would take the same person 3-4 times longer to complete a page of work (questions) on this book ... and that's because this book is "dense" in contents, each page has tremendous amount of info and each question/step challenges students little more than prior question. Would highly recommend for someone who is interested in competitive math.

Awesome!

This is a great book. Excellent for general math knowledge at middle and high school levels, no matter if the student is planning to go for any math competitions at all. I think this is what the modern world citizen should know if they complete today's high school, no matter where you live.

The material is somewhat easy for a 7th grader. Ideal for an advanced 5th or 6th grader. However, it does cover a wide variety of competitive math material (although in a superficial and hurried way). It's still a good introduction to a lot of math topics.

My son liked it.